FARMER CITY -- The Monticello girls' golf team was trying to take up as much of the shade Woodlawn Country Club's back patio had to offer as possible on a near-90-degree afternoon. The Sages had just finished their first 18-hole event of the 2025 season on Monday -- Blue Ridge's Mike Hendricks Invitational was one of the area's only events of the day -- and all that was left to do was collect their prizes.
Coming in, the Sages knew they'd have a good opportunity to win the eight-team event, and they clocked El Paso-Gridley as their main competition for first place. By the time they loaded up the bus to head home, they had quite the haul of hardware on board. Not only had Monticello bested EP-G by 13 strokes, but they also had four top-10 individual medalists.
As exciting and rewarding of a first tournament as it was, it all seemed expected, and the final scores back that up. First and second place was always going to be Monticello and EP-G. Another 54 strokes behind the Titans in third was Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond, and Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, Blue Ridge and Prairie Central were the next three. Meanwhile, Tuscola and Westville didn't have enough golfers to post an official team score. The competition field also originally included Meridian, but the Hawks were a no-show.
It's a pattern that's becoming more common across the area landscape, one that sees fewer and fewer girls' golfers competing.
"My experience has been programs that are successful in any sport have someone who's been with the program and built it. Golf has a tendency to have turnover with coaches for whatever reason," Monticello coach Andrew Turner said. "The other problem I think we have in the Champaign-Urbana area right now is we're really down to just one course that the kids can play. There's also a financial demographic to golf, and that does play into it. Golf isn't a cheap sport, and it takes time. I hope we see somewhat of a resurgence with teams, but I don't know what the answer is."
While the answer isn't clear, Turner just listed three reasons off the top of his head. It's not an issue he has run into lately -- the Sages have been one of the area's premier golf programs since Turner got involved in 2009 -- but it is an issue nonetheless. Just because his teams have been successful doesn't mean he can't see what other teams are going through.
"Sadly, this is a trend I've been seeing with girls' golf over the last several years," said IHSA Assistant Executive Director Stacey Lambert, who oversees high school girls' golf in Illinois. "I'm not sure any one thing specifically is causing it. Kids just seem to have a lot of options these days, and golf doesn't appear to be the activity girls are gravitating toward."
And there's a fourth reason. The IHSA now offers six girls' sports in the fall after the recent introduction of flag football, and the pull from them is strengthening. Volleyball has had a strong hold on the fall season for years, and the number of other sports at athletes' disposal makes it difficult for some programs to stay afloat. In a sport like golf where you need four golfers to form an official team, all it takes is a couple to jump ship for the team to be in jeopardy.
Tuscola only has one golfer this season, Lanie Yantis, and she placed 10th on Monday in Farmer City. Her coach, Daniel Nelson, followed her around Woodlawn Country Club for all 103 of her shots for the simple reason that he had no other golfers to assist.
"Lanie has put in a lot of work this offseason to improve her game, and you can really tell," Nelson said. "Coaching just one player has been a little different so far this year. Even though during my first season last year we still only had three players, it's been an adjustment. It's allowed me to fully focus on Lanie's game, and I feel like our communication with each other has improved. Although, I'm sure at times she wishes I had another golfer to go watch."
St. Thomas More coach Kim Zahrn was in Nelson's shoes just a few years ago. After a season with eight golfers, she only had one in 2021 before then-freshman and eventual two-time All-Area Player of the Year Ashley Wells arrived. Now, the Sabers' program is back in a healthy place with four sophomores and two freshmen.
"Rebuilding is part of this sport," Zahrn said. "I share my story with the girls on how I got started playing golf only 15 years ago. I also tell the girls that I will take all levels, from no experience to a lot of experience. I try to make golf a fun sport. I tell the girls and their parents that there are tons of scholarships out there for girls' golf anywhere from junior colleges to DI schools. I also remind them that golf is a sport you can play your entire life, whether you are 5 years old or 99 years old. I have dear friends in their 90s that still play."
To Lambert's earlier point on the overabundance of options athletes have in the fall, Zahrn said she'd like to see golf move to a spring sport that runs from April to June. If that were to happen, even though volleyball would be out of the picture, girls' golf coaches would still have to compete with softball, soccer and track and field. And with winter being out of the question, that brings us right back to the fall.
In a different manner, circling back to Turner's thoughts, he was adamant that the fundamental problem with the C-U area's decreasing interest in girls' golf is the lack of options. From a course perspective, that is.
Turner said he's lucky to run a junior program in Monticello that gets 50-60 kids out to play every summer, and he believes C-U would benefit immensely from a similar system. But with the University of Illinois Orange and Blue Courses being essentially the only consistent public options for high-schoolers to play, that becomes a tough project to start.
"The Urbana Country Club used to let us play. Atkins isn't going to let high school kids play. We're down to the Orange and Blue," Turner said. "Decatur has two or three really nice public courses, and Bloomington has four or five. Especially in Champaign-Urbana, we have to have those courses be more friendly to kids. I get that Atkins is the U of I's golf course, but why not develop something there for youth? The Orange and Blue do what they can, but we just don't have enough courses that are junior-friendly."
The consensus is that this doesn't appear to be a one-fix issue. There's also no easy place to start. Zahrn encourages parents who golf to let their kids tag along so they can get introduced to the sport earlier, Nelson continues to put out feelers to gain more interest in Tuscola and Turner maintains his transparency while speaking his mind on the topic.
In the meantime -- whether it's Turner with a combined 31 high school participants, Zahrn back up to a good number or Nelson with just one -- they'll all keep doing the best with what they have.
"We have a variety of talent," Zahrn said, "and we're looking forward to seeing what we do this season."