Sue Nyhus enters her 11th season at the helm of Utah Valley University women's golf in 2020-21. During her 10 years as the head women's golf coach at UVU, Nyhus has truly helped her program grow and mature into a very competitive force on the course today.
In Utah Valley's last full season of competition (2018-19), Nyhus helped guide her Wolverines to arguably their best year in program history as her team finished just three strokes back to post a third-place finish at the 2019 Western Athletic Championship (289-299-300--888). Nyhus also had two more of her players earn all-conference accolades on the season in Carly Dehlin Hirsch and Kaylee Shimizu. This now gives Nyhus six All-WAC honorees during her tenure at Utah Valley, led by three-time All-WAC performer Carly Dehlin Hirsch.
In the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign, Nyhus again had her Wolverines playing strong as the team posted a runner-up finish at the NM State Aggie Invitational and a total of five top-10 team finishes on the year. After having the season cut short due to COVID-19, Nyhus' 2019-20 squad tied a program record by having five golfers earn WGCA All-American Scholar recognition.
Nyhus has also helped her team improve on its national ranking in nearly every season since she's been at Utah Valley, and had her most successful season in 2017-18 when the team achieved a final ranking of 124. She has helped lead her team to a total of three tournament victories during her tenure at UVU, with the most recent coming at the 2014 Weber State Wildcat Invitational with a single-round tally of 8-over-par (292). Just this past season of 2018-19, her Wolverines earned runner-up honors at the home Hobble Creek Fall Classic with a three-round school record score of 27-over-par 879.
Over the past couple of seasons, her teams and players have shattered nearly every record in the program's record books. The 2018-19 Wolverines hold the Low 54 Hole Total of 879 (+27) at the Hobble Creek Fall Classic, the low 36 Hole Total of 587 (+19) at the same Hobble Creek Fall Classic, and her 2017-18 club holds the Low Round vs Par and the Low Round overall with a 4-over-par 288 at that season's Hobble Creek Fall Classic. Coach Nyhus has also helped her teams continually break the team Low Round record, as she helped her team achieve the current record of 288 at the 2017-18 Hobble Creek Fall Classic.
Individually, Nyhus helped mentor a couple of the greatest women's golfers in program history over the past few years in multiple-time All-WAC honorees Carly Dehlin Hirsch and Ana Raga. Dehlin Hirsch and Raga are currently one-two in the record books in all-time scoring average, as Dehlin Hirsch leads the way with a 76.32 career average while Raga is in second with a 76.81 clip. Dehlin Hirsch also holds the program's Low Round vs Par with a 5-under-par 67 at the 2017-18 Bobcat Spring Invite, while Kaylee Shimizu holds the Low 36 Hole Total with a 2-under-par 142 at the 2018-19 Anuenue Spring Break Classic, and Raga holds the Low 54 Hole Total with a 1-over-par 214 at the 2017-18 Hobble Creek Fall Classic. Nyhus has also helped lead five different Wolverines to tournament victories Kaylee Shimizu (2018-19), Carly Dehlin Hirsch (2017-18), Kimberly Nyhus (2014-15), Brooke Whittaker (2013-14) and Lynn-Marie Nagel (2011-12).
The veteran coach has also coached a total of 37 WGCA All-American Scholars during her tenure at Utah Valley, as well as 49 academic all-conference performers.
Nyhus coached her first All-WAC performer at UVU in 2015-16, as then redshirt freshman Carly Dehlin posted a fifth-place finish (72-75-75--222) at the WAC Championship en route to earning Second Team All-WAC honors. Dehlin's 6-over 222 tied for the best three-round score in UVU history.
Despite all of the success on the course, Nyhus has also helped her Wolverines achieve greatness in the classroom as she has coached a total of 37 WGCA All-American Scholars during her tenure at Utah Valley and 49 more academic all-conference performers as well. She also helped her 2012-13 squad compile the 11th-best team GPA in the nation with a 3.66 grade-point average.
During her first couple of seasons at the helm of UVU, Nyhus guided her Wolverines to a pair of second-place finishes at the Great West Conference Championship (2012 & 2013). She also coached the top medalist at the 2012 conference championship (Lynn-Marie Nagel) and the second-place finisher in 2013 (Jordyn Dougal).
Prior to coming to Utah Valley, Nyhus spent 11 seasons as the head women's golf coach at nearby Brigham Young University. While at BYU the two-time Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, guided the 2006-07 BYU women's golf team to one of its most successful seasons in school history with a 17th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. That season, BYU had the ninth-best team rating in the nation and finished in the Top 5 in nine of 12 events that year.
Nyhus coached six academic All-Scholars, two All-Americans, and one LPGA Tour player (Carrie Summerhays Roberts) during her tenure at BYU. She also led the Cougars to six NCAA Regionals appearances and the NCAA Championships twice.
As a player she competed for the Cougars in the 1980s when the team had its best national finish at No. 14 and later went on to play five seasons on the Women's Professional Golf European Tour.
After graduating from BYU with a BS and MS in health education, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Sport Psychology (Psycho-social aspects of sport) in 1992.
After regaining her amateur status, Nyhus represented Utah in five USGA Women's Team Championships and eight Utah-Arizona matches. In 1997, Nyhus placed sixth individually in the USGA Women's Team Championship.
In 1996 and 1998, she was recognized as the Utah Women's Golf Association Golfer of the Year, and she is a two-time winner of the Utah State Women's Amateur (1985, 1999). Nyhus continues to compete in the summer months with her best finish to date at the 1999 USGA Women's Amateur Public Links where she was runner-up. In 2010 she won the local qualifying and once again competed in the WAPL national championship.
In 1999 she was the first woman named the Utah Golf Association Player of the Year, and she was also named the Female Golfer of the Decade by the UGA. She has also been named the Utah Golf Association Senior Women's Player of the Year an impressive four times after again earning the award in 2018-19.
In 2019 Nyhus achieved something that no other amateur golfer ever has, as she became the first golfer in USGA history to have played at every championship offered to her by the organization (U.S. Girls' Junior, U.S. Women's Amateur, U.S. Women's Mid-Am, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links, U.S. Senior Women's Amateur, U.S. Women's State Team, U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball and the U.S. Senior Women's Open).
Nyhus and her husband, Steven, are the parents of three daughters, Stina, Kimberly and Katie.
