Source: VT Golf Magazine | Issue: Summer 2003 | Author: Amy Diadamo
Synopsis: This article talks about the laid-back, student friendly atmosphere of Ralph Myhre and how that has positively shaped the environment for Middlebury students.
While some college golf courses are considered private bastions for golf scholarship PGA Tour wannabees, Middlebury College’s Ralph Myhre Golf Course is about the average Joe and Jane getting out on the links and burning off some classroom stress. Though Middlebury had some diamonds in rough- LPGA Tour Hall-of-Farmer Patty Sheehan, born and raised in Middlebury, Vermont; and the 2002 golf team which posted the school’s best season by winning the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship- the course here has always been more about the student hacker amd local old-timer than the single-digit phenomenon.
Middlebury has never pretended to be true golf country. Its course is well kept, but certainly not pristinely manicured. The range, which doubles as the college’s athletic fields, may be open or may not. There may be someone in the snack shop to serve you, it may be empty. But for a school that has seen tuition rise to (gasp!) $35,900, gold ol’ Ralph Mhyre still only charges students $15 for 18 holes ($35 for “outsiders”). In other words, the school encourages students to play whenever the ground has thawed; it even offers golf as a gym credit. So this may not be true golf country in the traditional sense, but that is half of the course’s charm.
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