After finishing fourth at the Ivy League Championship in 2022, just 10 strokes off the pace, the Dartmouth women's golf team has set its sights on winning its first-ever conference title this spring. While the hopes of the squad don't fall onto any one golfer's shoulders, Alex Kirk, the Carolyn A. Pelzel '54a Head Coach of Women's Golf, does have high hopes for freshman Hope Hall.
 
The rookie was instrumental in helping Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton, Florida, win three Class 1A District 4 championships. She also led the Scots to a regional championship and a fourth-place finish in the state during her junior campaign, so she has the talent to be a force at the Division I level.
 
But Hall's talent isn't the only thing about her that stands out. She is also a Black athlete in a sport with a dearth of African Americans. On top of that, she is also the first Black member of the Dartmouth women's golf team in 40 years.
 
"I am really happy to be at Dartmouth, and while being the first one in 40 years is kind of surreal, it is also an honor," Hall said. "This is a really great opportunity for me, and I am trying to let the honor push me instead of hindering me."
 
One has to go back to the inaugural 1982 and 1983 Big Green teams to find the last Black women's golfer in Kim Selmore '83. Selmore was known for her basketball prowess, having ranked second on the team in assists and third in steals as a sophomore, but at least had some knowledge of the game.
 
"The team was just starting out and they really needed a sixth to fill out the team," Selmore said. "I played just about every sport growing up in St. Augustine (Florida), and my father got me started playing golf when I was 17. That was all it took for the others to draft me to play!"
 
Dartmouth has come a long way from that first year of the program 41 years ago. Back then, the scores for most of the team members rarely broke 90, and only freshman Susan Johnson '85 — who would go on to become an All-American by her senior year — shot better than 80 in a round.
 

Fast forward to this past fall, and 40 of the 46 individual rounds played across the three tournaments were under 80. The Big Green gave a glimpse of what they are capable of accomplishing in the final fall tournament, winning the Lady Blue Hen Invitational while setting a program record for lowest three-round score (880, +16), shattering the previous mark by 15 strokes. One of Hall's classmates, Sophie Thai, tied a Big Green record for lowest score in a single round (69, -3) — twice — and set another for best three-round total (210, -6) to take home medalist honors in the field of 75.

Coach Kirk with (clockwise from top left) Sophie Thai, Katherine Sung, Samantha Yao, Hope Hall and Kim Shen following their win at the Lady Blue Hen Invitational.

Hall played a big role in helping Dartmouth win the tournament, contributing her score to the team total in all three rounds. She wrapped up her weekend at 8-over par, tying her for 13th.
 
"Before the tournament, we talked about setting a goal of providing two scoring rounds for the team," said Kirk. "When Hope finished her first round with a 2-over 74, I simply told her, 'One down.' Then after her 75 in the second round later that day, I told her anything she does now is just icing on the cake. And she put up another 75 that contributed to our score. She certainly is capable of being a big factor for us this spring."
 
Kirk first became aware of Hall at a summer camp he hosted at the former Hanover Country Club in the summer of 2018, which introduced Hall to Dartmouth.
 
"I think I was here for four or five days with the other girls in the camp," Hall said. "We spent some time in the dorms, and one of the members of the team, Moon [Cheong '21] was supervising us. It was really a lot of fun and I fell in love with the campus. But I remember it being so much bigger than it feels now that I go to Dartmouth."
 
Kirk could not recruit her at that young age due to NCAA regulations, however, but Hall kept in touch with him anyway, emailing her scores as she progressed through her first two years of high school. Following her sophomore year in the summer of 2020, her recruitment could get started in earnest, but it wasn't long before the rug was pulled out from under her when the college eliminated five sports, one of which was women's golf.
 
"I really thought that was it, Dartmouth was out," Hall remembered. "But even though the program had been cut, Coach Kirk remained in contact with me and helped me with the college process, putting me in touch with this coach or that coach. He was so helpful throughout the entire process, even though neither of us thought I would end up here [without a women's golf program]."
 
Hall didn't have to wait terribly long for circumstances to change as Dartmouth announced the reinstatement of the women's golf team in late January of 2021, along with the other four programs that had been discontinued.
 
"When the team got reinstated and Coach Kirk was rehired, we continued talking and I sent him my transcripts and test scores. But I still didn't know if I would get accepted. The day I found out I got in, I played one of the worst tournaments of my life. I was so upset, tears rolling down my face in the car after it ended, thinking 'No college is ever going to want me.' Literally five minutes later, Coach Kirk called and said, 'So, Dartmouth, you want to go?' I was so excited, even if I wasn't completely convinced it was real."
 
Even with the excitement of being accepted to Dartmouth, the reality of being in the Upper Valley, away from friends and family for an extended period for the first time, was never going to be a simple adjustment. Hall quickly discovered she needed to build up a support network on campus, much like she had back in Florida.

"I'm really happy to be here, and when I finally got to practice after the first-year trip, everyone on the team was really welcoming," Hall said. "I found that making friends on campus, whether on my team or other teams like women's soccer, has been very helpful. I have a very strong support network back in Florida, and I really appreciate the friendships I have established at Dartmouth. Having external support is just as important as internal."

Kim Selmore '83

Selmore can relate to the difficulties of being taken out of her element and thrust into a different environment for the first time.

"When I first arrived at Dartmouth, it was quite the culture shock. I pleaded with my parents to let me come home my first few weeks there, but they stood firm. Playing sports was always a great outlet for me, and through those sports, I developed lasting friendships that have endured to this day.

"I never had a problem with people on the course [at Dartmouth]," Selmore continued, "but people did their share of staring," she stated. "I didn't feel like it was because I didn't belong out there, more because I was a curiosity. There may not be many Black golfers today, but back then there were even fewer."

Before making her way to the Upper Valley, Hall received an opportunity to play with a number of golfers who did look like her on the UNDERRATED Golf Tour. Launched by NBA superstar Stephen Curry last year, the organization is committed to "providing equity, access and opportunity to student-athletes from every community by balancing participation in the sport to truly reflect our society."

Hall, who considers herself a native of Maryland but has also lived in Nigeria and South Africa, made the most of her time on the tour, playing in the tournaments held in Chicago, Houston and Tampa. She played well enough to advance to the championship tournament (The Curry Cup) in San Francisco in late August, just before she arrived at Dartmouth for her freshman year.
 
"It was really fun, getting to travel to some places that I hadn't been to before," Hall said. "Stephen Curry talked to us a little bit before we got on the first tee. You could tell he really loved golf and really enjoyed organizing the tournament and bringing all of us together.
 
While meeting Curry would leave plenty of people starstruck, there were other people on hand that really caught Hall's attention.

"I was really excited to see (PGA Tour golfer) Collin Morikawa and (LPGA Tour golfer) Michelle Wie at the tournament. I am a big fan of Collin Morikawa, and I was just losing my mind! There were a lot of media there, too, like Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle and a number of others … I had played in a tournament that was televised by ESPN or something, but that wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking as this!"

Hall might have been a bit nervous in her first collegiate tournament last fall, admitting that she did not play nearly as well as she would have liked. But her results at the Lady Blue Hen Invitational are something for her to build on going into the spring season with her talent-laden teammates.

Hope Hall takes advantage of Dartmouth's indoor simulator in Leverone Field House.

All eight members of the team are capable of producing low scores, but only five can participate in any one tournament. The co-captains, senior Samantha Yao and junior Katherine Sung, are the veterans of the team. The duo posted the lowest scoring averages in a season in Dartmouth women's golf history last year. Yao also led Dartmouth to a tournament win by taking medalist honors at the Bama Beach Bash, while Sung earned a spot on the All-Ivy First Team in her first collegiate season.
 
Also returning to the fold are junior Penelope Tir, who was third on the team in stroke average behind Sung and Yao, and sophomore Claire Xu, who had her scores count toward the team total in 20 of the 22 rounds she played.
 
Hall and Thai aren't the only strong newcomers to the team. Freshman Kim Shen, like Hall, got through her first-tournament jitters, finishing in the top 10 of the Lady Blue Hen Invitational, one stroke ahead of Hall. The wild card is freshman Iris Cao, who did not compete in the fall but helped her high school team to four straight Georgia 7A state titles as well as the 2021 National High School Golf Association championship by 28 strokes.
 
The women open their spring schedule on Saturday at the Duran Golf Club in Melbourne, Florida, for the Columbia Classic. The 16-team field includes fellow Ivy schools Princeton, Yale and the host Lions, as well as top-35 programs in Texas Tech and Tulsa. Neither of the Big Green captains will be available to play, so Kirk will be sending his four freshmen and lone sophomore Xu to get the spring started on the right foot.
 
But when Hall takes to the course, she will be in a familiar setting — one without another Black golfer.
 
"I don't think there is another Black player in the entire Ivy League, but we did play against an HBCU team last fall, Delaware State, where my parents met," Hall noted. "There are times when it can be a little isolating on the course. I just try to remember I'm here to play golf, that I am a good player and I deserve to be here.
 
"There's always a little bit of pressure in being the first one of anything in that long of a time," she continued. "It is really helpful to have such great support from my family, my team and my coach. [Being the only Black player] will always be in the back of my mind, but I'm really proud to represent my family, my culture and my community here."