Assistant Athletic Director Sugg Featured In GolfWorld Magazine
06/12/2008 | Women's Golf
June 12, 2008
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - College Star Sugg Still A Campus Presence
From the May 30, 2008 issue of GolfWorld magazine
At the 1991 NCAA Women's Championship, with the title slipping out of her team's grip, UCLA's LaRee Sugg needed a spark - and she got one: a two-stroke penalty for teeing her ball in front of the markers at the par-3 13th hole at Ohio State's Scarlet Course.
"I really believe we wouldn't have won had I not had that penalty," Sugg says. "I was playing really conservative up until then. The penalty made me aggressive. I've always played my best when my back was against the wall."
Avoiding bare spots on the 13th tee, Sugg inadvertently placed her ball just ahead of the markers. Sugg's playing partner, San Jose State's Pat Hurst, noticed the problem during Sugg's backswing. Rules officials stretched string between the markers and asked Sugg to place a tee where she thought had placed her ball. "I could have argued it to the point where it could have gone my way," Sugg says. "But I didn't want any question to taint the eventual winner. I always wanted to win because we were the best team that day."
So Sugg took the penalty and knocked her third shot 40 feet from the stick - a putt she nearly drained. That got her adrenaline pumping. The Bruins had squandered a two-shot lead at the turn, and Sugg was "bound and determined not to be the reason we lost the tournament."
By the time she walked on the 17th tee, Sugg had erased the penalty with birdies at 14 and 16. A few groups were waiting to tee off at 17, so Sugg and her fellow Bruins convened and figured they were about six shot behind first-place San Jose State; Sugg assured her teammates they were trying to win.
And then the Lady Spartans imploded: They gave back five strokes on 17 and 18, leaving them tied with the Bruins for first at 45-over 1,197. On the first sudden-death hole, Sugg dropped a 24-foot slider for birdie to give UCLA the title.
"When the putt went in, everyone around the green cheered," Sugg says. "It frightened me. I had forgotten everyone else was there."
After graduating from UCLA in 1991, Sugg bounced around the WPGA Euro Tour, the Futures Tour and the Asian Circuit. In the winters she held down odd jobs: restaurant hostess, doggie day care, and substitute teacher. When Sugg earned her LPGA Tour card in 1995, she became just the third black member in tour history. She spent four seasons on tour, 1995-96 through 2000-2001, but since she left the circuit in 2002 to become University of Richmond's first women's golf coach, no other black players have earned a card.
"It's disheartening," Sugg says. "I see golf reaching out to different demographics, but I don't see these programs looking after young talented golfers enough to take them to the competitive level ... If the industry really wanted to see more African-American golfers, they would be able to give them the financing and coaching they needed."
Sugg splits time living in Petersburg, Va., and Pinehurst, N.C., where her husband, Paul McRae, is a teaching pro. In 2005 she was promoted to assistant athletic director, so she half-jokingly says she has retired from golf: "As long as I can walk I'm going to try and qualify for the [U.S. Women's] Open," which she has played in six times, most recently in 2006 at Newport CC. "I'm really doing this because I truly love to compete."