Kevin Pendley, a former Winthrop golf standout, has coached five All-Conference performers in Brent Martin (2007) and Kamito Hirai (2010, 2011, 2012), Brandon Truesdale (2011), Taylor Dickson (2014) and Zach Seabolt (2014, 2015) during his coaching tenure. He has also had one Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year in Pete Alminas, who received the award in 2008, and his 2010 squad received the Big South Team Sportsmanship Award. Under his direction, the program has also had 19 Big South Golfer of the Week honors. Big South Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2015.
In the last three seasons the Eagles have captured two events (Wendy’s Kiawah Classic and College River Collegiate) and finished in the Top 5 on 11 times. At the conclusion of the 2014 fall season, the Eagles achieved a national ranking of 31
st in the final fall Golfstat Ranking. In 2015 the Eagles earned the top seed for the Big South Conference Championship.
In 2015 Zach Seabolt became the program’s first All-America selection as he was chosen to the 3
rd Team for Division I PING and Golfweek Magazine. Seabolt is a two-time NCAA Regional Qualifier and won a total of five tournaments in his time at Winthrop, which ties Pendley for the most by an individual in the history of the program.
Pendley, a native of Greenwood, SC, was the Big South's first two-time Men's Golfer of the Year and Individual Medalist in 1997 and 1998. He also was the conference's third-ever four-time All-Conference performer (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998), along with former Eagle Paul Tomlinson, and is now just one of six men's golfers in league history with this distinction. Pendley also earned Big South Rookie of the Year recognition in 1995. He is just one of 10 golfers in the history of the Big South to be named all-conference four times.
He carded a 6-under 210 (69-69-72) in his 1998 Big South Conference Championship victory, which was the fifth-lowest at the time and remains tied for the ninth-lowest individual score in conference championship history. Pendley helped Winthrop to a runner-up finish in the 1997 Big South Championship, which is tied for the squad's best finish for the conference championship in program history, and was a member of the 1996 Eagles squad that set a school record for lowest 36-hole score of 571 at Old Dominion’s Seascape Collegiate, a record that stood for seven years. In only his fifth tournament as Winthrop’s coach, his team broke the 36-hole record by four strokes on the same course where Pendley and his teammates set the record seven years prior.
Pendley later played professionally for seven years, including the NGA Hooters Tour in 1998, 1999 and 2002, and the WEB.COM TOUR (formerly known as the Buy.com and Nationwide Tour) in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004. He ranked third on the NGA Hooters Tour money list in 2002 and had numerous Top 10 finishes. In 2001 Pendley carded his best finish on the Nationwide Tour at the Mark Christopher Charity Classic in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, finishing fourth. Pendley’s best finish as a professional came in 2002 as he captured the Louisiana Classic (Monroe, LA).
Pendley concluded his professional career with over 10-plus Top 10 finishes. He left the professional tour in 2005 to work for Cherokee National Life Insurance as a South Carolina service representative.
He was inducted into the 2008 Winthrop Athletics Hall of Fame and the Big South Conference Hall of Fame in 2010.
Pendley and his wife, Krista, are the parents of two sons, Landon and Logan, and a daughter, Raegan.
