GREENVILLE, S.C.—When a donor thought-about supporting girls’s golf at Furman College in honor of a former participant, he had only one title in thoughts: the CBS Golf analyst, former LPGA and Furman girls’s golf standout Dottie Pepper ’87.
“Dottie is an icon,” mentioned Alec Taylor ’75, who established, along with his spouse Susan Taylor, the Dorothy L. Pepper ’87 Endowed Scholarship for Ladies’s Golf. “She’s the most effective announcer in skilled sports activities. She’s modest, a worldclass golfer. Her feedback are so insightful. All the pieces about her epitomizes Furman.”
“We hope that is the impetus for others to come back alongside and donate,” mentioned Taylor, a former chair of Furman’s Board of Trustees. The ladies’s golf endowment is open to contributions from donors who wish to assist and develop scholarship funding for girls’s golf.
Cindy Davis ’84, Pepper’s former teammate at Furman, a former president of Nike Golf and a present Furman trustee, factors out that Pepper, who holds the bottom rating relative to par in any main event at 19 underneath, is the proper ambassador for girls’s golf as she reached the head of the game as a participant and now, in entrance of tens of millions of viewers, in broadcasting.
“We’re all happy with Dottie’s accomplishments on and off the golf course. Her authenticity, integrity and preparation shine by means of in every part she does,” Davis mentioned. “We all the time knew she was particular. Now, everybody else does too.”
“Furman Ladies’s Golf has achieved transformational success on and off the course as one of many premier applications within the nation,” mentioned Jason Donnelly, vice chairman for Intercollegiate Athletics at Furman. “Dottie Pepper is the embodiment of those accomplishments as each an individual and an expert. Congratulations to Dottie on this outstanding honor and thanks to our beneficiant donors for making this inspirational reward.”
Pepper was stunned and humbled by the scholarship in her title. It’s a full-circle second; she performed on a scholarship supplied by a household she by no means met. She’s wanting ahead to mentoring gamers who profit from the Dorothy L. Pepper Endowed Scholarship. “It’s a chance to the touch so many networks that golf supplies and open doorways to, and to supply a priceless schooling, too. You possibly can graduate with a level from Furman and know that you just’ve utilized your self. It means one thing,” Pepper mentioned.
Pepper was closely recruited out of highschool in Saratoga Springs, New York. Furman had seen outstanding success with gamers resembling Betsy King ’77 and Beth Daniel ’78, who had received the NCAA championship in 1976. Brad Faxon ’83 was an all-American on the lads’s group.
Pepper selected Furman, a top-10 group on the time, as a result of “My pursuits had been golf, to get a level in 4 years and to get an schooling that was price one thing,” she mentioned.
Pepper was low-amateur on the U.S. Ladies’s Open after her first yr at Furman. Within the NCAA Championship she completed within the top-five thrice, together with runner-up in 1985. She was a three-time All American, graduated with a level in well being sciences and turned skilled the day after graduation. On the LPGA Tour she received 17 occasions, together with two main championships. As an analyst with CBS Sports activities, hers is without doubt one of the clearest voices providing eager perception, shot-by-shot on the course and on larger points by means of her weblog, Pepper’s Perspectives.
Furman “punches above its weight” in lots of areas, Taylor mentioned. “On the high of the checklist can be girls’s golf.”
In 2020 Natalie Srinivasan ’20, now a medical pupil, received consensus Nationwide Participant of the Yr honors. Anna Morgan ’24, who received eight collegiate titles, was named SoCon Feminine Athlete of the Yr thrice. This yr, Audrey Ryu ’27, a live performance pianist and biology main with a 4.0 GPA, performed within the NCAA Championship in a subject filled with golfers from Stanford, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and different massive faculties. She made the reduce and completed her three rounds eight over.
These gamers stand out though girls’s golf is extra aggressive than it was within the Nineteen Eighties. Davis mentioned, “the panorama for girls’s sports activities has modified dramatically, and school sports activities particularly.” The variety of groups have elevated, and it’s extra aggressive to draw high expertise.
In 2022, Furman opened the Davis and Faxon Training Facility at REK, a state-of-the-art indoor advanced that elevates recruiting potential. Endowed scholarships by means of giving, Davis and Taylor mentioned, are one other strategy to preserve the excellence of the ladies’s program.
Whether or not gamers grow to be skilled or not, golf scholarships can nonetheless increase their careers and improve their educations. “The Furman community may be very robust,” Pepper mentioned. She has mentored a number of Furman student-athletes, and helped some who had been interns along with her at CBS. She walks the hyperlinks with a Furman-branded yardage e book tucked into her again pocket that was a present from former intern Marra Burton ’20.
Pepper is “so Furman,” Taylor mentioned. To honor her legacy by means of scholarships is “supporting a bunch of girls and a coach who do it the Furman method. The gamers know their first job is to get an schooling,” and so they symbolize Furman on the highest ranges of sport.
The scholarship named for Pepper helps “shine a light-weight on Furman’s program and makes a dedication to ensure this system stays tremendous aggressive,” Davis mentioned.
For extra info please contact: Clinton Colmenares Ph# 919-548-6493 e mail: clinton.colmenares@furman.edu
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