Shania Lancour has settled in nicely as equipment technician at Sand Valley in Nekoosa, Wis. Photos by Chelsea Willard
Shania Lancour’s mornings at this burgeoning Wisconsin golf resort feature checking mower heights, seeing whether equipment is gassed up and ready to roll, and making a batch of the club’s own divot mix.
Compared to how she was introduced to golf, all those daily doings should be a piece of cake.
Given her background, a career in golf might seem an unusual choice. Like this example: As a young child at her home in a cul-de-sac in Nekoosa, Wis., Lancour was a passenger in a neighborhood golf cart when she leaned out of it and toppled to the pavement. An “ouch” moment? If only. Instead, Lancour went to the hospital with what was diagnosed as a head injury.
If that wasn’t enough, as a teen she attended a 4-H golf event. As a bystander being told repeatedly not to stand too close to golf clubs being swung, Lancour waived that advice and drew way too close. Result? She got clobbered by a golfer’s swing, which led to her bleeding.
For a while, Lancour suffered aftereffects from both golf-related incidents. Now? “Everything is good,” she says.
In fact, things are great in her world — and believe it or not, golf is front and center.
Though the sport got in Lancour’s way for all the wrong reasons early on, now there is evidence that this 20-something is on her way in the industry. Lancour, a four-year GCSAA member, is an equipment technician at the multifacility Sand Valley in Nekoosa that continues to grow as quite the destination.
Her boss says that Lancour has shown promise since the start. “A young mind that’s climbing up the ladder,” says GCSAA Class A superintendent Sam Weber, a 16-year association member who oversees Sedge Valley, one of the numerous golf courses. “I hope she continues to stay here and help the company.”
Based on those previously mentioned golf-related mishaps that Lancour has outlasted, what could stop her now?
Lancour getting to work in the shop at Sand Valley.
Growing pains … and a beginning
Hear Lancour roar now. Early in her life, it was difficult to coax a peep out of her. “She didn’t talk until she was 3,” says her mother, Becky.
The youngest of three children and the only girl among them, Lancour met with a speech therapist. Ultimately and thankfully, her parents’ concerns were muted. “At the end of one of the sessions, they said she can talk when she wanted to. She was too smart for her own good,” says Becky, noting the silence ended way before it was time for her daughter to attend school. “When she started going to school, she started talking and wouldn’t stop.”
About all that halted her progression was the golf cart incident. It resulted in a weeklong hospital stay and ensuing post-stay complications with her head, in which she suffered a small brain bleed that created issues. “Loud noises bothered me. LED lights that were bright. Noise,” Lancour says.
She was fitted with a baseball cap to prevent even more troubles. “The doctors said (the injury) could trigger a seizure,” says Lancour, whose cap and sunglasses (fluorescent lights caused migraines if she wasn’t protected) became constant companions. Her mother drove Lancour to school to avoid noise from other children on the bus. As for gym class, Lancour was prohibited from participating.
As she aged, Lancour welcomed a diversion. She became intrigued with her father’s profession. A former railroad employee, including three years as a conductor, Robert Lancour entered the golf industry nearly a decade ago. He was hired the same year that Sand Valley opened in 2017. That same year, his high school freshman daughter caught on at the golf course. She worked on bunkers in the mornings and filled divots in afternoons.
“I think she had a lot of fun. She wanted to try it out there,” says her father, who’s still working as a greenkeeper at Sand Valley. “Usually, high school kids go their different ways. I’m glad she took the path she did. It makes her happy. It makes me proud.
“Now when she’s out there, I see her every day. She holds her own.”
That sounds like an understatement — and it sounds like she’s a chip off the old block. “She doesn’t take crap from anybody. Kind of like me,” he says.
Equipment Manager Tom Liacone and Lancour check out the golf course.
Finding her niche
It wasn’t a given that Lancour would follow in her father’s footsteps.
As she completed high school, Lancour still worked at Sand Valley. Whether it would be her future remained an unknown. “Originally, I wanted to be a dentist. I also liked the TV show ‘Criminal Minds.’ For a while, I thought I might go to school for criminology,” she says, “but I decided being at the golf course might be best. I like fixing things.”
The decision to pursue this industry came into focus when Lancour enrolled at Madison (Wis.) Area Technical College. “It’s an ag-focused program. I learned more about mowers, sprayers, more electrical things,” she says. “I gained a certificate (in 2023). I learned a lot.”
It set the stage for thoroughly getting down to business at Sand Valley. Lancour watched, learned and listened from her co-workers in maintenance, especially in the shop.
One of them is Austin Wright, CTEM. Before he moved on to where he currently works — famed Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., which hosts major events such as last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship — Wright helped launch what Sand Valley has become. The facility was in its infancy when Wright arrived. Soon, Lancour arrived. He quickly saw that she had potential.
“She was on the grounds crew, always hanging around the shop, learning, seeing what we were doing,” says Wright, an 18-year GCSAA member. “She started working in the shop and ran with it. She got more involved with GCSAA. She’s working with a lot of experienced technicians.
“She doesn’t know it now, but it’s just a start. When I was 22 (as an assistant superintendent at Lawrence Country Club in Lawrence, Kan.), I was probably not as responsible as she is now.”
The Lancour family. From left: Fox, Shania, Becky, Christian and Robert. Photos courtesy of the Lancour family
Big place, big opportunity
Sand Valley is large and growing larger. Lancour is smack dab in the middle of it, and the expansion is impressive.
As told by Sand Valley’s website, the vast area is located on 12,000 acres of rugged dunes in the Central Sands of Wisconsin, approximately 170 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
There are six golf courses. A sixth, The Commons, opened in June.
The USGA has noticed and is acting on it. The organization announced that four USGA championships are headed to Sand Valley Resort, starting this year with the U.S. Mid-Amateur set for Sept. 26-Oct. 1 at The Lido and the Sand Valley Course.
Lancour is stationed at two of the courses, Sand Valley (a Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design) and Sedge Valley (a Tom Doak design). Lancour’s impact is important to the overall cause of what happens in the maintenance end of three shops that handle operations for the numerous courses.
“She started here helping with our seeding crew,” Weber says, “and she’s been here a good portion of her life. It’s a big place with a lot of equipment and a lot of personalities to work with. She’s a good communicator. She’s taken ownership of reel grinding. She’s gone on to doing all the reels of the resort, and she’s taken a liking to it — mastered it.”
Equipment Manager Tom Liacone has watched Lancour blossom in her role. “She loves the industry, loves what she does. I think she works very hard to be the best she can be,” says Liacone, a two-year association member. “We lost one of our staff who wanted to be closer to home, and that left us with a big hole. Before he was gone, she learned from people like him and has stepped up. She’s fun to be around, really lights up our area. You don’t always get many young people who are accountable and do the right thing. She wants to make progress.”
Still, Lancour isn’t afraid to say she’s not a know-it-all and has made mistakes but is humble and remains a work in progress. “I don’t know as much as I think I do,” she says, “and I still am learning. Always.”
Lancour in the hospital after her golf cart incident.
Some pain but plenty to gain
Fox Lancour is the middle of the three Lancour children. He’s also wise enough to read his sister.
“She’s tough,” he says.
Lancour proved to him way back just how tough. He is the one who was wielding the golf club that, as their mother says, “nailed” Shania with one swing. “She had been told repeatedly to stay farther away,” Fox says, “but she didn’t want to listen to us.”
The outcome was painful, but no seizure this time. There was some blood, a small head shave followed, plus a scar. Fox (their other brother is Christian) says his sister took it like a champ. He isn’t surprised what she has gone on to accomplish in the golf world. “I’m very proud of her. She’s doing very well for herself,” he says. “She’s surviving and thriving.”
Taking advantage of industry opportunities is part of her growth. Lancour has been a golf course maintenance volunteer at major championships, such as the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links in 2023 and the U.S. Women’s Open in 2025 at Erin Hills (Wis.). She was a volunteer with Addison Donahue at Pebble Beach. Donahue is an assistant superintendent at Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley. Although they don’t work at the same course, they have become roommates, and Lancour is somebody Donahue can count on and trust.
Donahue, Lancour and the Australian cattle dog J.J. share a duplex. A perk to living there, Donahue says, is that Lancour “makes a great seasoned chicken.”
“When I think about her, I think about somebody who is always friendly and has nice things to say. She’s very smart for her age, and I admire her so much,” says Donahue, a four-year GCSAA member and daughter of superintendent Michael Donahue, who oversees Bali Hai Golf Club in Las Vegas. Michael’s son/Addison’s brother, Gavin, is an AIT at Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach. “I see her taking this profession pretty far.”
As volunteers at the U.S. Women’s Open three years ago, Lancour (left) and Addison Donahue gained experience in major championships. Now both are on the job at Sand Valley. Photo courtesy of Addison Donahue
The past and a future
In high school, Lancour showcased her gifts. “I did pottery in a high school class,” she says, “and donated the bowls that were sold for charity.”
Nowadays, she’s using her hands to help mold an industry that she has steadily grasped. Lancour hopes to assist in advancing the presence of more women in the industry. “I’m trying to get more of them involved because of the previous generations of women who have put so much into this,” says Lancour, who has participated in GCSAA’s Women’s Leadership Academy. “Here at Sand Valley, they want you to succeed. I don’t want to be coddled. I want to be taught. I don’t want jobs some may think of as easy. I can handle what we do.”
In case you’re wondering, she is named after Shania Twain (dad wanted Twain as her middle name, but mom said no).
Lancour dealt with some memory loss from that golf cart episode. She can remember bits and pieces of her youth, but not all of it. She does remember, though, being told there are many paths you can cross to find a spot in this industry that could make you happy. As for the here and now, Lancour is taking it day by day. Becoming a dentist wasn’t in the cards, but she has sunk her teeth into golf.
“I’m just going with the flow,” Lancour says. “There is always something going on. Maybe this always was where I was supposed to be.”
Howard Richman (hrichman@gcsaa.org) is GCM’s associate editor.