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Nyhus Receives Second UGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year Award

By Megan Terry, Programs Administrator

For the second time in three years, the UGA honors two-time Utah Women’s State Amateur Champion Sue Nyhus as the 2016 Senior Women’s Player of the Year. Sue earned five top-10 finishes throughout the course of seven Women’s Player Performance Rankings events, three of which were top-three finishes.

In addition to earning the individual title at the Utah Women’s Senior Amateur, Sue and her daughter, Kimberly, clinched the Utah Women’s Four-Ball Championship title. The duo posted a two-day total of 11-under-par 133 at Mountain Dell Golf Course to claim the victory and add yet another triumph to their already impressive list. The highly successful mother-daughter duo gained the early lead over Weber State’s Haylee Chugg and Xena Motes after Round 1 by carding a ten-under-par 61.

Nyhus captured her second career Utah Women’s Senior Amateur victory at Hobble Creek Golf Course against some of the best senior women golfers in the state. Coming into the tournament with high expectations, as she was one of the heavy favorites to take home the trophy, Sue carded rounds of 76-77–153 to win by four strokes over runners-up Elizabeth Jones, Annette Gaiotti, and Roberta Scott. 

Sue qualified for the 2015 USGA Women’s Senior Amateur at Hillwood Country Club in Nashville, TN by finishing second in the first qualifying event at Seacliff Country Club in Huntington Beach, CA. She carded rounds of 80-79 (+15) of the match play qualifying portion of the championship, placing her as the 40th of 64 seeds, but she was defeated by No. 25 seed Helene Chartrand 5 and 4 in the Round of 64.

Nyhus is obviously no stranger to success in the Utah golf community and at the national level. After competing in the 2015 Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes, Sue made a historical accomplishment that has not been achieved by any other golfer in the history of the USGA; she competed in every U.S. Amateur Championship in which she was eligible and advanced past qualifying in junior, public links, women’s, and senior women’s categories. She had many high finishes in national championships; however, her best finish was as runner-up in the 1999 USGA Women’s Public Links Championship in New Mexico.

“In 2013, the USGA decided to add the USGA Four-ball in the place of the Public Links which was discontinued,” explained Nyhus. “That announcement set the wheels in place for another very important eighteen holes of qualifying. At that point, I knew I was the only person who had competed in every event with the Public Links, and no one could match it because the Public Links was discontinued. Competing in the USGA Four-Ball with Annette and having Kim as my caddy was the perfect icing on the cake.” 

Along with playing competitively, Nyhus enjoys developing the game as a coach. Sue was the head women’s golf coach at Brigham Young University for 11 seasons. In eight seasons, she guided the team to six regional and two NCAA Championship appearances. She now enters her seventh season as the head women’s golf coach at Utah Valley University where she has helped lead her team to three tournament victories. The Wolverine continue to break school records and are looking forward to a strong spring season.

In addition to her success on the course, Nyhus has also helped her Wolverines achieve greatness in the classroom as she has coached a total of 23 WGCA All-American Scholars and 23 more academic All-Conference performers. She also helped her 2012-13 squad compile the 11th best team GPA in the nation with a 3.66 grade-point average. The Wolverines hope to challenge that school record again this year.

The annual presentation of the 2016 UGA Player of the Year Awards will take place on Wednesday, January 18th at Alpine Country Club beginning at 6 p.m. Please RSVP by calling the UGA office at 801-563-0400 by Friday, January 13th at 4 p.m.