Sue Nyhus’ latest United States Golf Association achievement was a long time in coming, and Craig Hocknull is getting another shot in the PGA Championship.
The two Utahns are playing on big stages this week in a departure from their usual jobs. Nyhus, the Utah Vallley University women’s golf coach, is playing in this week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf in North Carolina. Hocknull, an Australian native and Arizona club pro who spends his summers as the Glenwild Golf Club’s director of instruction, is playing in his second consecutive PGA Championship.
Nyhus, who qualified for the Women’s Senior Open in a sectional event in Colorado, is among 33 amateurs in the 120-player field at Southern Pines, N.C. Nyhus, 56, has qualified for every USGA event available to her, starting with the 1980 U.S. Girls’ Junior — and the organization keeps adding tournaments. She qualified for the inaugural Four-Ball Championship in 2015 and made the field for the second Senior Women’s Open.
UTAHNS’ TEE TIMES
Thursday; times MDT
PGA Championship
Craig Hocknull – 12:22 p.m., with Mikko Korhonen and Jhonattan Vegas.
U.S. Senior Women’s Open
Sue Nyhus – 10:40 a.m., with Laurie Rinker and Brenda Pictor.
She’s again being recognized as the only woman to have qualified for every USGA tournament offered to her – and no male golfer has done so. Nyhus is playing this week as a professional, after having competed as an amateur in Utah for the last 25 years. She has entered a PGA program, enabling her to teach golfers apart from her UVU players.
Hocknull qualified via another top-20 finish in the recent PGA Professional Championship in South Caroilina. Hocknull played respectably in last year's PGA, shooting 72-73 but missing the 36-hole cut.
Hocknull was assigned to the last starting time on the No. 10 tee Thursday, at 2:22 p.m. in New York.
