Golf tee times at the Hanover Country Club, introduced as part of the Prouty for the first time last summer, will be available to nearly 100 more participants this year, said Rebecca Gray, senior program manager of the friends of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center. During this year’s Prouty — the 33rd annual — golfers will be able to tee off at the Club on Saturday as part of the cancer research fundraiser.
The previous limit on tee times will be raised from 144 tee times to 244. Nearly 180 participants have already signed up to golf.
The expansion has allowed for a broader avenue of people to support the event’s fundraising efforts, Hanover Country Club head golf professional Alex Kirk said. Last year, he noted, participants traveled from as far away as Indiana to golf at the event.
“There are plenty of golfers out there who have been touched by cancer either personally or in their family,” Kirk said. “You don’t really realize the ties of support that make people want to come back. I definitely think that golf in the Prouty is a thing of the future, and it’s not going to go away.”
Golfers who choose to participate in the Prouty must pay a $50 registration fee and pledge a minimum fundraising amount of $150. Rowing, walking and biking have no registration fee but do have varying minimum fundraising marks based on age and whether or not the participant is registering along with their family.
Golfers will play 18 holes on the Country Club’s course. As of press time, the top individual golf fundraiser had raised $2,556.
Nine of 15 students interviewed on campus said that they were not aware that the Prouty had added golf or expanded its offerings, though those who were aware of the change expressed support for the move.
Jackson Dean ’16, a self-described avid recreational golfer, said that he thought adding golf would boost individual participation. Dean plans on taking part in the fundraiser.
Adam Baer ’16, another recreational golfer, said that while he plans on participating in the Prouty, he is leaning towards choosing a more traditional activity, like a biking route. However, he did note that he thought golfing would be a positive asset to the Prouty.
“The more people involved the better, so any way to get more people involved I think is a good idea,” Baer said. “People who might not want to do the walk or the bike ride now have another way to get involved.”
Kirk said the decision to incorporate golf in the Prouty was initially intended to involve individuals who wanted to support the fundraiser but were not able to participate in any of the activities offered.
Gray said that while she was optimistic about the benefits of maintaining golf as part of the Prouty, she also was cognizant of the fact that the Hanover Country Club and the Prouty will face restrictions if they decide to expand golf even further.
“We are somewhat limited because we only have, at this point, one day to do it,” Gray said. “We hope we can figure out other ways to expand it, but at this point we are grateful just to fill it to 3 p.m.”Last year, the Prouty set a day-of-event fundraising record, netting $2.6 million. As of press time, this year’s Prouty had raised $904,446 of a $3 million goal.
The Prouty, which was started in 1982, at first included only cycling but expanded to offer walking routes in 1992 and rowing in 2012. Golf held tee times last summer and attracted roughly 140 new participants to the event, organizers announced in a news release. At the time, Gray said, event organizers limited participation to ensure that they could handle the new event.
