Whether you are an avid golfer,
As staff writer Rob Wolfe reported last week, the club, which was founded in 1899, has been losing an average of nearly $600,000 annually over the past four years and membership is declining rapidly, from 551 three years ago to about 300 last year. This mirrors a national trend: Golf is an expensive, exacting game, and it takes a lot of time to play in a society that is increasingly short of time. Whether the game’s popularity will rebound is anybody’s guess. In that context, it’s hardly surprising that the college, which is in the midst of a multi-year effort to shift administrative spending to academic priorities, would be examining its options. After all, the country club, which is semi-private but open to the public, is hardly central to Dartmouth’s educational mission.
The course and its adjacent woods are, however, intimately connected to the town of Hanover and its residents. Trails and other land in the 96-acre Pine Park, owned by the nonprofit Pine Park Association and jointly maintained by the town and college, are closely interwoven with the course. The country club and Pine Park are a popular destination for joggers, dog walkers, sledders, cross-country skiers and those simply seeking a green oasis for contemplation. The course is also instrumental to the success of the Hanover High School golf program, according to its coach, who praised it for “18 great holes” and a practice facility that is “second to none.”
Simply put, the country club generates significant good will for the college in the community, and it’s hard to assign a price tag to that. In recent years, the college’s ambitious building program has increasingly bumped up against the interests of neighboring residents, as the battle over an indoor athletic practice facility proposed for South Park Street demonstrates. Closing the country club would certainly do nothing to win new friends for the college and might discourage some old ones. As a recent Forum correspondent pointed out, other universities have ended up investing far more to promote good relations with the community than Dartmouth loses on the country club.
The possibility that the course might close also raises questions about the future use of the land. The college recently announced that it is reviewing whether to expand its undergraduate student population, perhaps by as much as 25 percent. That strongly suggests that Dartmouth might need to enlarge significantly a campus that is largely hemmed in at present. The golf course property could prove a most valuable physical outlet if expansion is needed. But the options on the table apparently also include the college selling the property to capitalize on its value for development, which probably would be considerable. In that scenario, a tract that now serves as a green buffer could pose difficult challenges for the town related to growth.
Of course, Dartmouth is bound to do what its leaders deem is in the best interests of the institution. But assessing those interests in the broadest terms involves recognizing that old institutions that play a central role in the life of a community, such as the Hanover Country Club does in the college’s hometown, are irreplaceable. They may sometimes need to bow to other priorities and pass into history, but they are almost impossible to replicate. Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.