Just over five weeks after being reinstated, the men’s and women’s golf teams appear close to announcing their new home golf course for practice and competition.
In July, Dartmouth permanently closed the Hanover Country Club and cut five varsity teams, including men’s and women’s golf. Although the teams were reinstated in January, their home course was not brought back.
Many area golf courses, including Montcalm Golf Club in Enfield and the Quechee Club in Quechee, have been considered for Dartmouth’s new home golf course.
“We’re working on the details on [choosing a course] now,” executive associate athletics director Richard Whitmore said. “We should have something lined up pretty soon. We’ll find a good local option for our teams that will allow them to practice and play and host some tournaments in the fall.”
Men’s golf head coach Rich Parker and multiple golf players believe the College will choose Montcalm.
“I would guess that Montcalm most likely will be our home course,” Parker said. “Logically, I think Montcalm is the closest and that they want us.”
Montcalm was designed by Andrew Sigler ’53 Tu’56, a retired paper company CEO who decided to build the course when Dartmouth temporarily closed the Hanover Country Club in 2001 for renovations. Golf Digest named the course one of the top ten best new private courses in the U.S. in 2005, and the magazine acknowledged it again in 2007 as one of the best in New Hampshire.
Golfer Eli Thrasher ’23 added that he and the team still hope that parts of the Hanover Country Club could be salvaged for their use.
“Because Hanover [Country Club] is closing, the ultimate goal is now to have a practice facility on the backside of the Hanover Country Club property, just for the golf team only,” Thrasher said. “So hopefully that can stay open so we have an on-campus practice facility.”
Apart from its home course, the golf team also currently uses an indoor practice facility that some players have been able to practice at this term and will continue to use in the spring. The indoor facility consists of two hitting areas, a putting green and a golf simulator that allows one to play automated courses.
Golfer Mark Turner ’22 said that because only players approved to live on campus have access to the facility and most of the team is not living on campus this term, only two players have been able to use the indoor facility this winter.
Whitmore indicated that the golf teams might begin to use a new indoor practice facility in the near future.
Despite the uncertainty of the teams’ practice and playing plans for the near future, many team members have expressed relief and excitement to be back. They also expressed gratitude toward the female student-athletes whose threatened Title IX litigation helped bring back the five teams.
“At first, [the reinstatement] came as a shock,” Turner said. “We are all obviously thrilled. We thank the women’s teams for their efforts in getting the teams reinstated because it was their doing.”
