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Spotlight on Rob Henley - Men's Golf
11/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
November 7, 2007
Dartmouth College junior golfer Rob Henley has a lot of things to figure out about his future. He does not know what career he wants to pursue after graduation, where he is going to intern this summer or even exactly how and where he is going to spend winter term. But when it came to deciding to attend Dartmouth, Henley had no trouble making that call.
“It basically came down to two schools: Dartmouth and Middlebury,” Henley said recently. “I spent a lot of my childhood around Dartmouth at homecoming weekends and stuff like that. I knew about the school.”
He probably knew more than most incoming freshmen ? and maybe more than most of his fellow legacies.
Henley's family virtually bleeds green with his father and mother, Joe and Kim Henley, graduating in the Class of 1979, his maternal grandfather a member of the Class of '53 and two aunts on his mother's side graduating in '81 and '83.
That does not mean, though, that Rob was coerced into following in his parents' footsteps.
“I definitely considered other places,” he said. “In the end, it came down to this was where I felt comfortable. It wasn't that I felt pressure to come here or anything like that.”
In fact, just the opposite may have been the case. Joe Henley said he and Kim pushed Rob to keep his options open, if only because they knew how hard it was to get into their alma mater.
“The numbers that kids are up against these days in the applicant situation are far different than when we came along 30 years ago,” Joe Henley said in a telephone interview from the family's home in Longmeadow, Mass. “You hope your child will get in, but you don't know it's going to happen.
“It's common sense for him to explore other places. We also wanted to make sure that it was what he really wanted.”
Naturally, Mom and Dad were not disappointed with Rob's final decision.
“Obviously, we love Dartmouth, and we are thrilled our son is at Dartmouth, but we're also glad it was a decision he made,” said Joe Henley, himself a former All-America golfer for the Big Green.
The Henleys are not the only ones happy that Rob ended up in Hanover: Dartmouth golf coach Rich Parker has no complaints.
“Rob was a big part of our success this fall,” Parker said. “He has improved each year, and it has been a pleasure to watch his progress.”
As a freshman, Henley averaged 81 strokes per round. This fall, he averaged just more than 76.5 with his best finish at Yale's MacDonald Cup, where he placed 15th in a 136-player field.
Henley will be able to work on his game right through the winter months if things go the way he was planning when interviewed in mid-October. Henley said he and teammate Alex Olshonsky '09 were part of a group of about six Dartmouth students looking into studying at the University of Sydney in Australia.
For the native New Englander and avid skier, it will be a much different January than he is used to.
“That will be nice, definitely, to be able to play golf while I'm over there,” Henley said. “I've never been able to play golf in the winter, so that will be nice to keep my game in decent shape.”
When he is not developing that game, Henley is working on his degree in economics, a major he arrived at after two years of taking classes to figure out what interested him, what he called “a kind of process of elimination.” He is thinking about finding an internship for the summer, possibly in banking. But right now he is keeping an open mind ? and taking advantage of the flexibility a liberal arts education affords him.
“I haven't really thought too much about long-term ideas,” Henley said. “One of the good things about coming out of a liberal arts school is that your major doesn't matter that much. You can be an economics major and go to med school or a religion major and go into banking.
“That was one of the allures of this school, especially for me, because I'm definitely someone who doesn't know what I want to do.” (Stephen Dravis)
Dartmouth College junior golfer Rob Henley has a lot of things to figure out about his future. He does not know what career he wants to pursue after graduation, where he is going to intern this summer or even exactly how and where he is going to spend winter term. But when it came to deciding to attend Dartmouth, Henley had no trouble making that call.
“It basically came down to two schools: Dartmouth and Middlebury,” Henley said recently. “I spent a lot of my childhood around Dartmouth at homecoming weekends and stuff like that. I knew about the school.”
He probably knew more than most incoming freshmen ? and maybe more than most of his fellow legacies.
Henley's family virtually bleeds green with his father and mother, Joe and Kim Henley, graduating in the Class of 1979, his maternal grandfather a member of the Class of '53 and two aunts on his mother's side graduating in '81 and '83.
That does not mean, though, that Rob was coerced into following in his parents' footsteps.
“I definitely considered other places,” he said. “In the end, it came down to this was where I felt comfortable. It wasn't that I felt pressure to come here or anything like that.”
In fact, just the opposite may have been the case. Joe Henley said he and Kim pushed Rob to keep his options open, if only because they knew how hard it was to get into their alma mater.
“The numbers that kids are up against these days in the applicant situation are far different than when we came along 30 years ago,” Joe Henley said in a telephone interview from the family's home in Longmeadow, Mass. “You hope your child will get in, but you don't know it's going to happen.
“It's common sense for him to explore other places. We also wanted to make sure that it was what he really wanted.”
Naturally, Mom and Dad were not disappointed with Rob's final decision.
“Obviously, we love Dartmouth, and we are thrilled our son is at Dartmouth, but we're also glad it was a decision he made,” said Joe Henley, himself a former All-America golfer for the Big Green.
The Henleys are not the only ones happy that Rob ended up in Hanover: Dartmouth golf coach Rich Parker has no complaints.
“Rob was a big part of our success this fall,” Parker said. “He has improved each year, and it has been a pleasure to watch his progress.”
As a freshman, Henley averaged 81 strokes per round. This fall, he averaged just more than 76.5 with his best finish at Yale's MacDonald Cup, where he placed 15th in a 136-player field.
Henley will be able to work on his game right through the winter months if things go the way he was planning when interviewed in mid-October. Henley said he and teammate Alex Olshonsky '09 were part of a group of about six Dartmouth students looking into studying at the University of Sydney in Australia.
For the native New Englander and avid skier, it will be a much different January than he is used to.
“That will be nice, definitely, to be able to play golf while I'm over there,” Henley said. “I've never been able to play golf in the winter, so that will be nice to keep my game in decent shape.”
When he is not developing that game, Henley is working on his degree in economics, a major he arrived at after two years of taking classes to figure out what interested him, what he called “a kind of process of elimination.” He is thinking about finding an internship for the summer, possibly in banking. But right now he is keeping an open mind ? and taking advantage of the flexibility a liberal arts education affords him.
“I haven't really thought too much about long-term ideas,” Henley said. “One of the good things about coming out of a liberal arts school is that your major doesn't matter that much. You can be an economics major and go to med school or a religion major and go into banking.
“That was one of the allures of this school, especially for me, because I'm definitely someone who doesn't know what I want to do.” (Stephen Dravis)
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