Dartmouth College in New Hampshire announced on July 9 it would be shuttering Hanover Country Club, along with the elimination of five varsity athletic teams, including men’s and women’s golf. President Philip Hanlon announced the moves in response to what will be an estimated $150 million campus-wide budget deficit this fall, a dire financial situation exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Golf had been played on this site on the northern edge of the college since the 19th century—its first nine holes opened in 1899. By the late 1920s the course had expanded to 27 holes, with the design and construction of each subsequent nine-hole addition undertaken by Orrin Smith and Ralph Barton, who, respectively, built courses for Donald Ross and Willie Park, Jr., and C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor.

The quaint Hanover course, with a primary 18 holes measuring a mere 5,900 yards, remained largely as it had been until 2000, when the college hired architect and restoration specialist Ron Prichard to rebuild the layout. Prichard updated the infrastructure, expanded and enhanced the greens, built five new holes (to accommodate a proposed clubhouse relocation) and reshaped the rest of the course to better reflect the design sentiments of its early 20th-century origins.

Derek Duncan, “Why Dartmouth’s beloved and historic Hanover Country Club is suffering an unfortunate fate”, Golf Digest,
July 15, 2020.