Golf is known as a historic and traditional sport, and it tends to influence those who spend lots of their time around it. The game inspires people worldwide and produces some remarkable players, coaches and people in general. One of these people is Richard Sykes, who happens to be the head coach of the NC State men’s golf team.
Sykes is currently in his 45th year as head coach of the team, making him the longest standing coach at NC State by more than 20 years.
He has quite the reputation not only at NC State, but in the entire golfing landscape, so much so that he was inducted into the Golf Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001 for his accomplishments.
Some of these accomplishments include being named ACC Coach of the Year in 1982, 1988, 1990 and 2000. Additionally, in 1990, he brought the first-ever ACC Championship to NC State.
He has not won another title since, but considering how tough it was to win when he took over, one championship alone is pretty outstanding.
“Since my first year, we finished last, 110 shots out of first, you can imagine what it felt like to win,” Sykes said. “It was not a culmination of a lot of work, it was just people getting better and better.”
Sykes took over the golf team in 1970, two years after he graduated from NC State. He played on the school team in 1965–66, and became a pro at Raleigh Golf Association after graduating. His experience with the game was profuse, but he stumbled upon the coaching job by accident.
“I always wanted to,” Sykes said regarding the coaching job. “Al Michaels was my golf coach, but he was also a football coach here. The summer of ‘70–71, Earl Edwards decided to retire, and they named Al Michaels the interim head football coach. So, when they made him the interim head football coach, they asked me if I would take over the golf team.”
The man who took the job by chance has now led the team to more success than anyone could have ever imagined, especially back then when winning was tougher, except if you were Wake Forest.
“To give you a little history, back then, non-revenue sports had 70 scholarships other than football and basketball,” Sykes said. “You spread them around to different sports as you saw fit. NC State was a swimming school. Wake Forest was a golf school. Each one of the schools picked a sport the other ones didn’t pick.”
The Demon Deacons dominated golf because that is where most of its scholarship money went, and because most sports back then weren’t fully funded, it was difficult to recruit good players who weren’t already committed to Wake Forest. However, everything suddenly changed when the NCAA took the cap off university sports. Now, teams had the money to improve facilities, instruction and equipment. The improved facilities could help convince young, up-and-coming golfers that their program was right for them.
“Since then, I don’t think Wake Forest has won another golf championship,” Sykes said. “So all those schools that were dominant in those sports, the domination went away. All of the sudden, everybody got fully funded, or started working at it. What’s happened is that everyone has caught up really fast. Wake Forest didn’t get worse, everyone else just got better.”
One of the things that has improved for NC State is the quality of the facilities. Lonnie Poole Golf Course was finished in 2009, and Sykes worked with Arnold Palmer’s company to help complete it.
This is just one of the other jobs he has held since taking the coaching job at the university, such as being in charge of facilities, game operations, the motor pool for athletics and video for athletics.
Sykes has accomplished great things for the golf program at NC State but continues to remain humble and deflect success to the players.
“You just want the guys to have a good time playing and be successful,” Sykes said. “It all changes because the kids change. I find that guys just keep getting better. They work harder, and they’re bigger and stronger than they used to be.”
Sykes has raised the program from the ground up and shows no signs of slowing down. For golf fans, this is good news, because he plans on staying a little while longer.
“Raleigh is one of the best places in America to live,” Sykes said. “I’m from here, and I’m actually living in the house that I grew up in right now. That’s pretty special. So there’s a lot of reasons I wouldn’t be leaving here.”
