2005 BYU Hall of Fame
BYU had never heard of Sue Billek Nyhus before her mother wrote the school a letter with Sue’s résumé attached. At the time she had only been playing golf for three years at Dunedin High School. Nevertheless, BYU invited Nyhus to visit campus, a long and expensive trek from her home in Florida (prior to the NCAA, athletes paid their own recruiting trip expenses), but Nyhus had to know if BYU was the place for her. Turns out, it was.
Striving to keep a balance between golf and her studies, Nyhus maintained at least a 3.5 GPA for eight semesters during competition, earning the Cougar Club Scholar Athlete Award twice. She was also named to the Academic All-HCAC team in 1984 and 1985, winning Academic All-American honors in 1985.
As a result of her performance on the course, Nyhus received the Cougar Club Leona Holbrook Spirit of Sport Award in 1985 and was selected as BYU’s All-Around Player of the Year by her teammates. She also helped the Cougars to a 14th-place NCAA finish in 1985 and was named All-HCAC while helping BYU to a conference championship.
After graduating from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education (school health/health education) and a master’s degree in health education, Nyhus enjoyed a successful five-year career on the Women’s Professional Golf European Tour.
Nyhus’ life changed in 1992 with the birth of her first child and the completion of her doctoral degree. Her life on tour ended and her time as a mother began. However, as her three children have gotten older, Nyhus has been able to spend more time competing, and she has played in every national championship conducted by the USGA, with the exception of the Women’s Senior, which will have to wait until her 50th birthday (she later accomplished this feat in 2019).
The Utah Golf Association named Nyhus the Female Golfer of the Decade for the 1990s. In 1996 and 1998 she was named the Utah Women’s Golf Association Golfer of the Year, and in 1999 she finished runner-up in the United States Golf Association Public Links Tournament. She has also won several individual events in Utah, including the Utah State Amateur. Equally impressive, Sue was the first woman ever named as UGA Player of the Year. 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 1998, BYU invited Nyhus to assist her former coach, Gary Howard. Since Howard’s retirement in 2001, Nyhus has mentored numerous all-conference players and Academic All-Americans as the BYU women’s head golf coach. In 2005, her team advanced to the NCAA National Championships for the first time since she played for BYU in 1985, and Nyhus was named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. She 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. 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.
After coaching the Cougars for 11 seasons, Nyhus has been the head coach at Utah Valley University since 2010.
Sue and his husband Steven have three daughters: Stina, Kimberly, and Katie.