COACH ALEX KIRK

Alex Kirk completed his eleventh season as the head women's golf coach at Dartmouth in 2023-24. The former head golf pro at the Hanover Country Club was appointed the Carolyn A. Pelzel '54a Head Coach of Women's Golf in July of 2012.

In 2023-24 Kirk guided the program to it's first Ivy League Championship in school history. The Big Green finished two strokes ahead of Yale in second and eight ahead of Penn in third. Three Dartmouth student-athletes finished in the top 10 and four in the top 12. Afterwards he was then named the unanimous Ivy League Coach of the Year. The honor marks Kirk's second of his career, also winning it in 2019.

In 2022-23 after matching a program record for best team score the Dartmouth women's golf team equaled that effort in the second and final round of the Navy Invitational, cruising to a 19-stroke win over second-place Yale with a 6-over 582, its lowest 36-hole score in relation to par ever. This was also the third tournament victory for the Big Green, the most ever for the team in a single season. The team also won the Lady Blue Hen Invitational as well as Poppy Hills Patriot Invitational earlier in the year.

The 2021-22 season saw the Dartmouth women's golf team win the Prospect Bay Intercollegiate beating out Penn in a tiebreaker to claim the team trophy. All five Big Green golfers finished in the top 25 of the 83-player field. During the Ivy League Championship Sophomore Katherine Sung  was one of three players with the low score of the final round at the Ivy League Women's Golf Championship, helping her climb seven places into a tie for third with a 6-over 222, matching the best finish by a Dartmouth women's golfer at the event. The team tied for fourth overall at the championship.

The 2018-19 season was certainly eventful for Kirk throughout the year, most importantly guiding his women’s squad to a second-place finish at the Ivy League Championship, a mere six strokes back for the best showing ever by the Big Green. Kaitlyn Lees placed third overall as a freshman to earn a spot on the All-Ivy League First Team, while Maddie Nelson tied for eighth to make the second team. Dartmouth also took third in the 15-team field at its home invitational to start the fall, plus claimed fourth out of 12 at the Brown Invitational.

Kirk received the New England PGA Patriot Award in 2019 as well, given to a PGA Professional who personifies patriotism through the game of golf and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who have valiantly served and protected the United States. Kirk also was named the 2018 New Hampshire PGA Teacher of the Year.

His 2017-18 squad boasted a pair of All-Ivy League performers for the first time in 21 years as both Jessica Kittelberger and Catharine Roddy finished among the top 10 at the conference championship. That duo allowed the Big Green to be just 24 strokes behind the champion while placing fifth overall. Other highlights from the season came in the form of taking third of 11 teams at the home fall invitational, beating both Wagner and Lehigh in match play, and placing third of 10 at the Hartford Invitational.

The 2016-17 season was one of the most successful for the team over the past two decades. Five times the Big Green finished among the top five teams in a tournament, topping out at third in both the Dartmouth Invitational and the Navy Spring Invitational. At the Princeton Invitational, the Green bested four other Ivies — the host school, Brown, Harvard and Penn. An opening round of 290 was one of the lowest in program history and led the Yale Invitational before the Big Green finished fifth. Dartmouth wrapped up the year by tying for fifth at the Ivy League Championship with Roddy tying for third to become the first Big Green golfer to earn first-team all-conference honors in 17 years.

Dartmouth won a pair of tournaments in 2015-16, first with the home event in the fall with a two-round total of 22-over par, then besting host Wagner in the spring by a single stroke. Freshman Julia Calbi also made a stunning fall debut with three top-five finishes in four tournaments before ending the season with the lowest stroke average at 78.44.

In 2014-15, the Big Green had a pair of third-place finishes at the Dartmouth Invitational and the Chesapeake Bay Invitational. The team defeated Brown in an Ivy League match prior to the championship, and senior Jane Lee finished with the best individual average score on the team (79.26) with freshman Isabelle Kane right behind her at (79.33).

Kirk's team finished sixth at the Ivy League Championship in his second season at the helm and placed third at the Harvard Invitational in October. Senior Sarah Knapp finished 15th at the Ivy League Championship.

During his first year at the helm of the Big Green program in 2012-13, Dartmouth had a pair of top-four finishes and four top-10 team results. Two different players shared low individual medalist honors as Sarah Knapp won a pair of events and Janet Lee won at the Roar-ee Invitational. The best finish for the team was at the Wofford Invitational where they placed third out of 16 teams. The Big Green ended the season with a seventh-place finish at the Ivy League Championship.

A veteran of New England golf, Kirk has been a Class A Member of the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) since 1999, and was the President of the New Hampshire PGA (NHPGA) after serving as the Vice President for three years. He was also the District Director on the New England PGA (NEPGA) Board of Directors and a member of the PGA President's Council on Growing the Game from 2006-10.

As the head pro at HCC until the course was closed in 2020, Kirk developed and coordinated clinics for all ages and levels, including Dartmouth physical education classes, with a focus on fundamentals, etiquette and networking through golf. He established the Golf in School Program, which grew from two local schools to 27 schools across the state. Kirk oversaw the HCC Junior Golf Program as well and received the NHPGA Junior Golf Leader Award in both 2009 and 2010.

Prior to his arrival in Hanover, Kirk was an assistant pro for nearly two years at Manchester Country Club in Bedford, New Hampshire, and the first head pro at Pistol Creek Golf Club for two years in Berlin, Conn. His career as a golf professional began in 1996 as an assistant pro at The Woodcrest Club in Syosset, New York, where he remained for five seasons before taking another assistant position for two years at Middle Bay Country Club in Oceanside, New York.

Kirk graduated from Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, with a degree in business administration in 1991. He was a four-year letterman on the Bison soccer team, serving as team captain in his senior year, plus played rugby for four years. He went on to take part in the PGA of America's Golf Professional Training Program and has won various Pro-Am Tournaments throughout New Hampshire and New England.