Class of 2026

Gail Sykes Clayton

Region: Capital District
Hometown: Schenectady, N.Y.
Deceased (1948–2017)

Gail Sykes Clayton was one of the finest golfers Schenectady has ever produced, and one of the very few from the Capital Region to win on the national amateur stage, where she triumphed not once but twice. Sykes built an amateur résumé that few New York players, male or female, have ever matched.

She announced herself as an elite golfer as a teenager. In 1964 she captured the NYS Girls' Junior 18U Championship, defeating Oneida's Debbie Austin (a future LPGA Tour winner) on the 19th hole. Sykes reached the quarterfinals of the prestigious North & South Amateur that same year. 

The following summer, Sykes became the first New Yorker to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. She advanced through an 88-player field stocked with future LPGA and USGA standouts at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen, Colo. In the championship match, the 17-year-old Sykes scored a 5 and 4 victory over Mary Louise Pritchett, a 16-year-old from Raleigh, N.C. Sykes sank a 4-foot putt for birdie on the 14th hole to close out the match. She needed only 25 putts for 14 holes, vs. 30 for Pritchett.

Sykes still is one of only two players born and raised in New York to win the U.S. Girls title. The other was Elizabeth “Doll” Story of Clayville in 1967. Sykes is one of only five women to win three straight Northeastern Women’s Golf Association titles (in 1964-65-66).  

Sykes’ game grew in college. Playing for Odessa College in Texas, she won the 1968 National Intercollegiate Women's Individual Championship. She then transferred to East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. There she competed as an individual alongside the men's team from 1968 to 1971. In 1969, she became one of only six golfers named to the first Women's Intercollegiate All-America team, all while earning bachelor's and master's degrees in education.

Sykes continued to compete at a high level well into adulthood. She came close numerous times in the NYSGA Women’s Amateur championship, reaching the semifinals in 1966 and 1968, the quarterfinals in 1967 and the finals in 1970, where she lost to NYSGA Hall of Famer Lancy Smith. 

But Sykes Clayton broke through as a state champion after moving to Ohio. She won the Ohio Women’s Amateur championship in her first try, in 1975. Sykes Clayton defeated two-time Ohio champion Sharon Keil of Toledo in the quarterfinals, then won the title match over Sheila Scott of Ashtabula, 6 and 5. 

“I think I’m playing about as well as I have at any time,” Sykes Clayton told the Toledo Blade.

Asked if she ever gave a thought to turning pro, she said: “Never. I’m having too much fun playing amateur golf, and that’s the way it will be.”

Sykes Clayton repeated as Ohio state champion again in 1976, playing while 6 1-2-months pregnant. She scored a big win in the semifinals over Keil, making a 9-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. Then, carrying a portable chair in one hand and a golf club in the other during the 36-hole final, she defeated 22-year-old Kay Kennedy of Dayton, 2 and 1, in the championship match.  

“It’s unbelievable,” Sykes Clayton told the Dayton Journal-Herald. “I had all these people telling me that I was pregnant and I wouldn’t be able to play golf this summer. I guess this’ll shut their mouths. I thank God that I was able to keep it together. I feel really good. I don’t feel any worse than anyone else. My doctor told me I could play golf up until the day I have the baby.”

Off the course, Sykes Clayton devoted her life to young people as a longtime educator and golf and track coach at East Forsyth High School in Kernersville, N.C. Her standing in New York golf endured: the Northeastern Women's Golf Association named one of its major better-ball events in her honor, and East Carolina inducted her into its Athletics Hall of Fame. 

Gail Sykes Clayton passed away on Jan. 20, 2017, in Kernersville at the age of 68. As one of only a handful of Schenectady players ever to win a national amateur title, and the only one to win two, she stands among the greatest competitors the Capital District has produced, and earns her place in the New York State Golf Association Hall of Fame.

Gail Sykes Clayton's Career Highlights

  • Winner, NYSGA Girls' Junior Amateur Championship (1964) — defeated Debbie Austin on the 19th hole
  • Quarterfinalist, North & South Amateur (1964)
  • Winner, U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur Championship (1965) — def. Mary Louise Pritchett 5 & 4 at Hiwan GC, Colo.
  • Winner, National Intercollegiate Women's Individual Championship (1968), playing for Odessa College
  • Named to the first Women's Intercollegiate All-America team (1969); one of only six selected
  • Played alongside the East Carolina men's team (1968–71); earned bachelor's and master's degrees in education
  • Runner-up, NYSGA Women's Amateur Championship (1970)
  • Winner, Ohio Women's State Amateur Championship (1975, 1976) — defended in 1976 while pregnant
  • Longtime educator and golf/track coach, East Forsyth High School (Kernersville, N.C.)
  • NEWGA named a major better-ball championship in her honor (the Gail Sykes)
  • East Carolina University Athletics Hall of Fame inductee (2004 or 2005 — confirm)
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