Chris Riley is in his sixth season leading the USD men’s golf program in 2022-23. He was named the seventh head coach in program history in June 2017.
Riley's fifth season leading the Toreros saw the program notch back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances for the first time since the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 campaigns. Building off 2020-2021's NCAA Championship appearance, San Diego won the Hoakalei Country Club Invitational (October 24-26) before notching a second-place finish at the PING Cougar Classic (April 22-23). USD qualified for the NCAA Palm Beach Garden Regionals as an at-large selection and placed 8th of 14 teams at PGA National Resort from May 16-18.
Three of Riley's players won tournaments in 2021-2022 (Harrison Kingsley, Charlie Reiter, and Andi Xu), one took home All-WCC Team honors (Kingsley) and one qualified for and competed in the U.S. Open at The Country Club (Reiter).
In his fourth season at the helm, Riley helped the Toreros return to the NCAA Championships for the fourth time in program history and the first time since 2011. San Diego qualified after a top-five finish at the Albuquerque regional as the Toreros stormed back in the final round as Andi Xu nailed a 12-foot put for birdie on the 18 to secure the victory. The Toreros finished the 2020-21 season with seven top five finishes.
After two years of reestablishing the foundation of the golf program, the Toreros enjoyed a successful fall campaign during the 2019-20 season with three top-five finishes and a #92 ranking the Golfstat Division I standings entering the spring competitions. Despite a shortened spring 2020 season, the Toreros finished as the nation's most improved team based on stroke average.
Riley arrived at USD in the summer of 2017 following a successful professional career and two-year stint as a Division I assistant coach. He competed in more than 330 PGA Tour events in 13 seasons and was a member of the 2004 Ryder Cup for Team USA. A San Diego native and resident, Riley served as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater, UNLV, for two years from 2015 to 2017.
Riley turned pro in 1996 and became a member of the PGA Tour in 1999 after spending time on the Web.com Tour. He reached a world ranking as high as No. 21 and captured two tournament wins as a professional, including the 2002 PGA Tour Barracuda Championship.
In his career, Riley finished second four times, in the top-ten 33 times and in the top-25 on 88 occasions. He played in 16 major championships with a best finish of third place in the 2002 PGA Championship.
Riley attended UNLV (1992-96) where he became the school's first four-time All-American in any sport, leaving the storied program as one of its greatest golfers ever.
While at UNLV, he won four tournaments, placed in the top-20 in 45 of his 59 career college tournaments (76 percent) and was top-five 21 times (36 percent). In his senior year as team captain, Riley helped the Rebels finish second in the nation at the 1996 NCAA Golf Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Riley graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications in 1996 and was inducted into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. He also is in the Southern Nevada Golf Hall of Fame (2004) and the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame (2014).
Riley lives in Point Loma with his wife Michelle and their two daughters, Taylor and Rose.
