North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Tee It Up
5/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
BY TIM PEELER RALEIGH, N.C. -- Richard Sykes can’t wait to run into television golf announcer Steve Melnyk in the next few months. It was a few years ago, when former NC State golfer Carl Pettersson was sitting atop the first-round leaderboard at the British Open, that Melnyk teased NC State’s long-time golf coach about having promised recruits for 30 years that NC State was on the verge of building a golf course on its campus. “I can’t wait to let Steve know, as soon as we break ground on it, that we are underway,” Sykes said. The Arnold Palmer Course Design Company is scheduled to break ground in late June on the long-awaited and much-discussed Centennial Campus golf course, thanks primarily to Raleigh businessman Lonnie Poole’s $3 million naming-rights gift in February. Fund-raising for the $11.3 million project is on-going through NC State’s Office of University Development. Poole, the founder and chairman of Waste Industries Inc. and a 1959 graduate of NC State with a degree in civil engineering, has supported many projects at NC State in the past and chose to make the donation to the golf course because it will benefit a variety of academic, athletic and alumni needs. The Lonnie Poole Golf Course will be home to the College of Natural Resources’ nationally prominent turfgrass programs, the PGA-sanctioned Professional Golf Management program and the men’s and women’s varsity golf teams. "NC State has many, many foundations, and a lot of them have a very narrow purpose," Poole said. "I think the golf course happens to be a campus-wide type of thing, and that makes this a unique gift that benefits both the College of Natural Resources, the College of Agricultural Life Sciences and the athletics department. It all rolls into one gift that benefits a fairly wide range of constituent groups at NC State." The par-71, 7,025-yard layout will also be open to alumni and the general public. NC State graduate Erik Larsen is the chief designer for the Palmer-signature course that covers more than 200 undeveloped acres on Centennial Campus. Ground-breaking for the long-awaited start of construction is tentatively scheduled for the end of June. The course is slated to open to the public in the spring of 2009. For Sykes, in his 34th year as the Wolfpack’s head golf coach, the course and the teaching center that will be adjacent to the clubhouse will mean NC State is on par with most of the other schools in the ACC, all but one of which have golf courses. The Wolfpack men's and women's teams use the school’s short-course practice facility behind the Faculty Club on Hillsborough Street, but they have also had to depend on the kindness of Triangle-area golf courses for playing privileges. Over the years, the teams’ lack of a golf course to call their own has hampered Sykes and Wolfpack women’s coach Page Marsh in their recruiting efforts. “It will give us a chance to do some recruiting on somewhat equal footing,” Sykes said. “We have some great places to play golf around here, and some people have been very nice to us. But it will be nice to have a golf course to call your own, where you have a nice locker room and a team room, which are things we do compete against all the time. “We have been somewhat successful without our own golf course, but I would like to see what it is like to have one.” Marsh, who has been the head coach of the women’s program since it was restarted in 1999, is equally as excited about the prospects of a home course. “It is exciting for the student-athletes,” Marsh said. “It’s equally exciting for the university because it is something that will fit so well for the PGM program, the turfgrass program, for athletes, for the student body, for the alumni and for the public. “It is on a beautiful setting on Centennial Campus.” For Poole, the most important aspect of making the naming contribution was creating a lasting legacy that will benefit current students and athletes, will provide educational opportunities for two of NC State’s colleges, and will give alumni and the general public a place to play on a first-class golf course. “The golf course happens to be a campus- and community-wide type of thing,” said Poole, who began playing golf as a student at NC State in the late 1950s. “It happens to roll into one gift that benefits a fairly wide range of constituent groups at NC State. That is why we did it.” Though Poole’s gift will allow construction to get started, NC State associate athletics director Nora Lynn Finch, who co-chairs the golf course fund-raising committee with McQueen Campbell, is quick to point out that money is still being raised, through individual donations such as the purchase of naming rights to specific holes. So far, naming rights have been secured for 14 of the 18 holes, as well as the putting green. Naming rights are also still available for the $1.6 million clubhouse and the $1.6 million research and training center that will be built after the golf course is completed. Tim Peeler is the managing editor of www.GoPack.com and a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. You may contact him at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu MAKING A DONATION: Though the golf course project is managed by the University Development office, Wolfpack Club members receive priority points for any donation they make to the golf course project. However, it will be applied over a 10-year period, instead of as a bulk sum. (For example, a member who makes the $5,000 donation to become a Charter Member will get a $500 Wolfpack Club credit for 10 consecutive years.) Only about 40 of the 250 available Charter Memberships remained as of mid-April. Included in the membership are preferred tee times, a locker in the clubhouse, unlimited free range balls, reduced cart fees and a discounted annual player card for unlimited rounds of golf for one. For more details, visit http://www.ncsu.edu/development/golf.html or contact Becky Bumgardner or Kristy Hendley in the NC State Office of Special Projects at (919) 513-4412.
