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When Philadelphia-area golfers Kaitlyn Lees and Samantha Yao qualified for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship last September, little did they know it would be their last competitive round for seven months.
Much of it had to do with COVID-19 wiping out so many competitions. But their unexpected hiatus was brought on by another extenuating circumstance that occurred a few months before the duo earned medalist honors at Waynesborough Country Club, in Paoli, Pa.
Lees had just finished a casual round in early July at Merion Golf Club, her home course, when she received a text from Dartmouth College, where she was a rising junior.
School president Phil Hanlon and athletic director Harry Sheehy went on to announce at a hastily called Zoom meeting that Dartmouth’s golf programs – along with men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s lightweight rowing – were being shuttered. Hanover Country Club adjacent to campus would also be permanently closed. Cutting these programs and the facility, the administrators said, would save $2 million annually, even though the salaries of the golf coaches were endowed, and 71 percent of the golf teams’ $350,000 annual budget was derived from an alumni group called Friends of Dartmouth Golf.
These moves followed a similar announcement from Brown University, another Ivy League school in Providence, R.I., that trimmed 11 sports from its athletic program, including men’s and women’s golf.
“It definitely was a big shock,” said Lees, who noted that the women’s team had finished second in the Ivy League in 2019 under Alex Kirk, who was named the Coach of the Year.
The players weren’t afforded the chance to ask questions on the call, and Yao and Lees said a pall overtook the program. Given the timing just two months from the start of the fall quarter, it didn’t leave the players much chance to seek alternative playing opportunities at other schools.
“At the time, it wasn’t clear if sports would be back in the fall or not,” said Lees, who finished a program-best third in the 2019 Ivy League Championship and was an All-Ivy League and WGCA Scholar All-American as a freshman.
Yao, of Berwyn, Pa., who turns 20 on April 12, chose to remain at Dartmouth. The economics major loved the school and its academic regimen too much to leave. Her passion for competitive golf would need to be fulfilled in other ways, including the sixth U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, which will be played April 24-28 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.
“They’re just driven golfers,” said Kirk, who spent 15 years at Hanover C.C. and the last nine coaching the women’s program. “It was a great match at Dartmouth. They wanted high academics and competitive golf.”
At the time of the cuts, Kirk’s program, which became a varsity sport at the school in the early 1980s, was on an uptick. Men’s golf dates to 1904 and longtime coach Bill Johnson (1967-2001) produced several All-Americans and Ivy League Players of the Year as well as three conference titles.
Lees, 21, was one of the players Kirk was building his program around, only to see the fruits of his labors shattered with the school’s decision. Still wanting to compete on the Division I level, Lees reached out to several schools, eventually finding a home at Georgetown University, a Big East program with a curriculum suited to her major (international political economy). The Bryn Mawr, Pa., resident has aspirations of going to graduate school and landing a job in international relations or international development. Like the Ivy League, however, Georgetown hasn’t played a competitive golf event in 2020-21.
Friends of Dartmouth Golf presented a progressive, last-ditch proposal to save the golf teams, offering to fully fund the programs over the next four years in tandem with a commitment from coaches to recruit at least one Native American or a person of color for each team. Hanlon stood steadfast with his decision to cancel. It was only after California-based attorney Arthur Bryant, who specializes in Title IX cases, forced Dartmouth’s hand with a lawsuit that the school reversed course in late January and reinstated all five athletic programs.
Enacted in 1972, Title IX mandates that schools offer equal athletic opportunities for men and women. Pending a Title IX review, the programs will be reinstated through the 2024-25 academic years.
“Schools need to get the message: Title IX has been the law for almost 50 years,” Bryant wrote in a press release. “It guarantees women equal opportunities, athletic financial aid and treatment. If schools don’t provide that, the women can sue – and they will win.”
Said Yao: “I’m really excited. Most of us now have a pretty positive outlook.”
Dartmouth’s 269-acre campus in Hanover, N.H., near the Vermont border can best be described as rustic. Founded in 1769, the school is one of nine U.S. colleges chartered before the Revolutionary War, but its enrollment is the smallest in the eight-school Ivy League. Two years ago, only 8.8 percent of the 21,394 applicants were accepted, which makes Dartmouth one of the world’s most elite colleges.
The rural locale and high academic standard are what attracted Lees and Yao to Dartmouth, along with the close-knit student body. Golf was an added hook.
“Dartmouth is such a wonderful place and I just fit right in,” said Yao, who is living on campus this year even though all of her classes are virtual. “I couldn’t imagine myself going to another school.”
Added Kirk, whose team carried a 3.56 GPA before the shutdown: “Finding [women] like Sammy and Kaitlyn helped put Dartmouth on the map. We were really the doormat of the league for a while. I finally figured out how to crack the code [in recruiting]. You attract one good player, the rest kind of follow.”
That’s what happened with Lees and Yao.
Although a year apart, Lees, a three-time Pennsylvania Girls’ Junior champion (2015, 2016, 2018), and Yao developed a bond starting in 2012 when they first met on the Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour, and they grew closer after Yao enrolled at Dartmouth in 2019.
However, finding competitive opportunities during the pandemic was as challenging as any course at Dartmouth.
Neither had the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball on their radar until Yao’s father mentioned it late last summer. They entered just eight days before the deadline. Neither golfer came into the Sept. 29 qualifier with high expectations, and they bogeyed their opening hole. A 20-foot birdie by Yao on the 383-yard fifth hole kickstarted a run of 5-under-par golf over the final 13 holes.
“Honestly, we have a good balance,” said Yao of the partnership. “If one of us was struggling on a hole, the other was able to pick up the pace. We just really balanced each other out. We were joking and having fun.”
Their 4-under 67 earned medalist honors in a field of 13 sides.
Lees, twice a first alternate for USGA championships, was emotional when the scores became official, even shedding a tear while being interviewed by a Golf Association of Philadelphia official.
“I had so many close calls [at USGA qualifiers],” said Lees. “When Samantha made a birdie on the last hole, I had a feeling [we qualified].”
In a way, this was a little vindication for Dartmouth’s program, proving there are plenty of talented golfers, even in places where the game is overshadowed by academic tradition.
“I don’t think the average student understands what it takes to excel on both sides,” said Kirk of the balance and time management required at Dartmouth. “I couldn’t tell these kids not to take a class. We had to figure out how to practice around the class. I had players who were more freaked about a test than focused on practice.”
Lees and Yao have found ways to keep their games somewhat sharp, despite the lack of competitive reps. Kirk said he wouldn’t be surprised if the duo plays well in the Four-Ball later this month.
“Sammy and Kaitlyn are students of the game,” said Kirk, who is considering caddieing for one or both players. “Once they hit that opening tee shot, the adrenaline is going, and they’ll be firing at the pins. And I think they will make some putts. I like their chances.”
David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.
