Shania Lancour

Since opening its gates in 2017, the Sand Valley resort has become a happening place in the golf world. Located in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, it features five golf courses with a sixth on the way — and possibly a seventh. It will host four USGA Championships in the next nine years, including the U.S. Mid-Amateur this fall.

Shania Lancour helps keep all the pieces in place. Her job title is equipment technician. She started working at the resort the year it opened, when she was 14.

“My dad started working on the agronomy team,” she tells Wonderful Women of Golf host Rick Woelfel. “I also wanted to start working. They let me come out and rake bunkers and fill divots and it just kind of rocketed off from there.”

Lancour started out working on the golf courses but demonstrated over time she had a knack for, as she put it, “taking things apart and putting them back together,” even while the golf courses were under construction.

“The construction equipment was breaking down,” Lancour says, “so I stepped in and kind of tinkered my way into making it work until the mechanics could get out there.”

Lancour moved to the maintenance side of the operation full-time three years ago.

“I kind of stuck my teeth into the mechanics,” she says. “Everyone was so involved with the turf, but no one was looking into the background of what makes it work. You can’t have turf without mechanics.

“I think having a turf background helps me because I can look at how things break and how we can fix things. I can look at things through a turf lens, which my boss told me was an advantage that I had.”

Lancour notes that much of the work done by the six mechanics on staff is preventative in nature. That requires scrutinizing equipment on a daily — and sometimes twice-daily — basis.

“We check every single blade that comes in contact with the grass,” she says. “We check its cut, the quality and the height of it to make sure it’s still in line with our standards. And then we are also on call for anything that might happen to break out on the course, either to get it out of the way or to fix it on location.

“We will do sweeps before we leave for the day. I will go around to all the equipment that was taken out and make sure nothing looks weird. If you see a tire that looks a little low, you’ve got to fill it up because if it goes flat on the turf, it’s going to leave a mark.”

Lancour was part of the volunteer corps at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. She described the experience as “eye-opening.”

“I went in my first year in the shop,” she says. “I was a little chickadee. I was brand new to the world. That was the first year I had fully immersed myself into the golf industry.”

Lancour returned to the Women’s Open last year at Erin Hills and also attended the GCSAA Women’s Leadership Academy. She is scheduled to be on hand for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National in June.

Lancour is energized by the connections she’s made with other women in the turf industry who came before her and helped clear the path she is now following.

“I think a lot of workplaces would be a lot worse for us if the ladies before me hadn’t put the hard work in to change the view of women in turf,” she says. “Sand Valley is a really welcoming place and I think it is the best place I could have possibly started out from. They helped me along, they sent me to these events, they support me in every way they can.

“I hear horror stories all the time about how women are treated, people that I’m friends with. I feel like everyone should be in a welcoming supportive company.”