University of Tennessee Athletics
Opportunity Everything For Pepper
October 16, 2014 | Women's Golf
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Dottie Pepper came of age in golf at a time when opportunities for women in sports were far fewer than they are today.
Pepper used her opportunity to play golf while receiving an education to set out on a journey that included a 17-year career on the LPGA tour, a long tenure as a respected golf commentator and ventures beyond the course that have her set for the next step in her life.
The native of Saratoga Springs, N.Y will be honored Friday night as the professional recipient at the Mercedes-Benz Legends of Women's Golf Awards Banquet in conjunction with the 18th Annual Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship at Cherokee Country Club.
Pepper knew what she wanted in a college, that was the easy part. Finding a school that had those characteristics was another story.
"When I was in high school in upstate New York, it was still the age of the dot matrix printer," Pepper said. "I went the high school guidance counselor and the only things we plugged in were communications, golf and south of the Mason-Dixon line."
The computer spit out Clemson University. The only problem was, like many schools at the time, Clemson didn't offer women's golf. A connection at Clemson landed her information down the road at Furman University, where Pepper was a member of a team as competitive on the course as off of it.
Pepper was a three-time All-American and earned her LPGA Tour card the first time she made the finals at Q-school. Her Furman teammates went on to become some of the top teaching pros in the country, fellow professional players and executives in golf apparel companies.
Golf was a common bond among them and their careers they chose, but it was not everything to them. Pepper was a 17-time winner on the LPGA Tour, including wins in two major championships, the 1992 and 99 Nabisco Dinah Shore at the Mission Hills Country Club. Injuries forced her retirement from competition in 2004, but the end of her playing career was never going to be the final stop.
"I never intended to play until I couldn't play effectively anymore," she said. "The piled-on injuries kind of made that choice for me, which was fine. The reason I went to school was because I had Plan B or Plan C or whatever it was. I left on my own accord, which was the greatest thing. You never want to be pushed out of a job and that was my job. While I had a good career, I probably left a few things on the table, but I never intended for that to be the last avenue I ever walked down."
Pepper walked off the course, then right back on it as a commentator.
"I got some great advice from someone I really looked up to in Judy Rankin," Pepper said of the hall-of-fame player and broadcaster. "A friend who worked at NBC made a couple of phone calls and I ended up getting my foot in the door and did well my first few times. I've been lucky to have those doors opened and to be adept enough at it to maintain for 10 years."
NBC and the Golf Channel provided the platform for Pepper's broadcasting star to rise. But that was not the final stop for her, either. She moved back to her home state of New York and decided to take a step back from broadcasting. But she still would not be leaving the game. An opportunity to give back and help mold the growth of the game would be her next challenge.
"My decision to leave NBC was because basically I was going to have no life," Pepper said. "I was going to be on the road with them essentially three-quarters of every year. I didn't move home to New York to have a normal life to turn around and be on the road more than I ever was. When the opportunity with the PGA of America came along through Ted Bishop to be a member of their board of directors, it was the perfect time, the perfect segway to say, `That's enough.'"
Her TV days were not far behind her before another opportunity came along. In March 2013, Pepper agreed to a deal with ESPN that would allow her to broadcast fewer events, while keeping the PGA spot she loved and the work-life balance that she craved.
"I signed with ESPN and it's just enough golf," Pepper said of her schedule. "It's all golf that matters, there's not one giveaway tournament in there. I've been very lucky to have an impact on the game through the PGA, to be able to do what I know thorough ESPN and I have a life."
Now she sees the next generation coming up through the ranks and is eager to share her experiences with them, even if that advice comes with a tad bit of envy in her voice.
"When I look at all of those young faces, I see nothing but opportunity because there are so many opportunities out there, even more so than when I was playing," Pepper said. "The opportunities that are out there are virtually endless. Never paint yourself into a corner and say `This is where I'm going and I'm so headstrong that I miss other opportunities that may be out there.' There are opportunities out there if you have golf at the core are endless."
