Dottie Pepper to obtain GCSAA’s Outdated Tom Morris Award
Dottie Pepper, former LPGA Tour skilled and present tv golf broadcaster, has been named the recipient of the forty second Outdated Tom Morris Award, introduced by the Golf Course Superintendents Affiliation of America (GCSAA). Pepper will probably be honored Jan.
31 on the Dawn Celebration as a part of the 2024 GCSAA Convention and Commerce Present in Phoenix, Ariz.
The Outdated Tom Morris Award is introduced to a person who, by way of a unbroken lifetime dedication to the sport of golf, has helped to mould the welfare of the sport in a fashion and magnificence exemplified by Outdated Tom Morris. Outdated Tom Morris was a four-time British
Open winner and the legendary greenkeeper at St. Andrews in Scotland.
“Dottie Pepper has had a standout profession as each a serious champion and a golf reporter,” GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans stated. “However she additionally has a deep appreciation for what all goes into making the sport occur and the work that superintendents
do, which is why Dottie Pepper is a perfect recipient of the Outdated Tom Morris Award.”
Pepper gained 17 occasions, together with two majors, throughout her 16 years on the LPGA Tour and represented the USA on six Solheim Cup groups earlier than turning into a golf commentator in 2004. She has coated the sport for NBC, Golf Channel, ESPN and CBS, and he or she
made historical past in 2020 when she grew to become the primary strolling reporter on the grounds of Augusta Nationwide throughout CBS’s protection of the Masters.
She confirmed an early curiosity in golf after her grandmother purchased Pepper a Chi Chi Rodriguez junior golf membership set when she was 7. Her father, former main league first baseman Don Pepper, furthered younger Dottie’s curiosity, constructing a driving vary
on the household’s Saratoga Springs, N.Y., farm.
“It had well-manicured greens. I used to be by no means allowed to mow the greens, however I definitely mowed the fairways on the tractor in my youth,” she stated. “I knew when it was time to aerate and put issues to mattress correctly for the winter.”
Pepper got here below the wing of PGA skilled George Pulver when she was 14. She would later chronicle the influence Pulver had on her life in her ebook “Letters to a Future Champion: My Time with Mr. Pulver.”
She thrived below Pulver’s tutelage. As a 15-year-old, she gained the 1981 New York State Newbie and was the low beginner within the U.S. Ladies’s Open in 1984. At Furman College, Pepper was a three-time All-American and graduated with a B.A. in
well being sciences in 1987. She joined the LPGA Tour in 1988.
After a stellar taking part in profession that included profitable the 1992 and 1999 Nabisco Dinah Shore (now referred to as The Chevron Championship), a 13-5-2 profession report within the Solheim Cup and being named Participant of the Yr in 1992, Pepper retired from the Tour in
2004, and later that 12 months she started her second act on tv.
“When she got here to us, she instantly raised our broadcasts to a brand new degree,” stated Jim Nantz, Pepper’s CBS colleague and fellow Outdated Tom Morris Award winner. “She executes to perfection.”
Pepper’s preparation for telecasts usually depends on superintendents. “I attempt to communicate with the superintendent regularly, particularly these superintendents who’ve gone by way of a restoration or renovation as a result of they’re those
who’re hands-on the entire time,” she stated.
Off the course, Pepper lives in her hometown of Saratoga Springs along with her husband, David Normoyle, and their miniature German Schnauzer, Rupert.
She is the seventh lady to win the Outdated Tom Morris Award, becoming a member of Patty Berg, Dinah Shore, Nancy Lopez, Judy Rankin, Annika Sorenstam and Renee Powell.
“If you put me in a bunch with Judy and Dinah and people others in the identical sentence, it’s important,” Pepper stated. “That is the head, you realize, like Mount Everest, for a backyard geek and grime nerd like me.”
For an entire listing of previous winners, go to https://www.gcsaa.org/about-gcsaa/awards/old-tom-morris-award.
