North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State on Course for Golf Layout
5/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
May 9, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - Over the weekend, the NC State women's golf team participated in an NCAA regional for the fourth time in five years. The Wolfpack men's team, directed by veteran coach Richard Sykes, has consistently held its own against the ACC's big boys over the years. The relatively consistent success of NC State's golf teams seems rather remarkable given the fact that neither squad has a home golf course. By next spring, however, there's hope that a brand new course that NC State can call its own will finally be under construction.
Of course, all of this is contingent upon a successful fundraising effort that's currently in progress.
"We're hoping that by the end of December of this year that we will have raised in pledges and actual cash $18 million," said Seniors Associate Athletics Director Nora Lynn Finch, co-chair of the "On Course for Distinction" committee. "With that, we will build a golf course, a pro shop and clubhouse, along with the E. Richard Sykes training center, which will house our golf team's lockerrooms and the classrooms for turf grass and the professional golf management curriculum."
Two of the major players in helping to raise funds for the Richard Sykes Center also happen to be major players on the pro golf tours. Former Wolfpack stars Tim Clark and Carl Petterson are offering both their time and influence to bolster the fundraising effort.
Not only would a new course provide a boost for the Wolfpack golf teams, it would certainly be the perfect site for NC State's Professional Golf Management curriculum. NC State is one of only 16 schools nationally to offer a Bachelor of Science Degree that is accredited by the PGA of America.
"When you think about the PGM and the turf grass science program, the golf course is integral to those two curricula," Finch said. "But it's also integral to the success of our men's and women's golf teams."
Working with the Arnold Palmer Course Design Company, Eric Larson, an NC State architectural design student, is the project manager for a course that is slated to be built on 1,000 acres near the university's Centennial Campus. It took 17 different designs to finally come up with an acceptable par 71 layout that will cover more than 6,900 yards from the back tees.
"We now have the design that we want to go with, and if we can raise $18 million, we'll begin construction next spring," said Finch. "We may have a high budget; we're not sure $18 million is what we'll need. We probably won't need more, but we just don't know what we'll run into in the construction of the course."
National rankings and ACC prominence are nothing new for Sykes, a 34-year veteran who was inducted into the Golf Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001. After being resurrected just five years ago, the women's golf program at NC State has continued its steady and measured improvement under coach Page Marsh. Still, NC State has the only teams in the ACC that don't have their own course and regulation practice facility.
"It's a great tribute to Richard and Page Marsh," Finch said. "They spend the majority of their time on two things: recruiting and recruiting golf courses for our teams to practice on. They spend more time looking for practice sites than they do anything else during their normal morning hours. Think about Herb Sendek not having a court to practice on or Kay [Yow] or Chuck [Amato] not having a practice facility. That's where our golf teams are."
