2021 All-Area girls' Golfer of the Year: Winters' love for sport grows along with abilities - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

CHAMPAIGN — Ainsley Winters didn’t begin playing golf because of her friends.

Nor because any of her siblings took up the sport first.

And not even because of something she saw on the television.

The origin story of how the Mahomet-Seymour junior came to take up the sport is a good one to laugh about now. Especially considering what she’s achieved on numerous golf courses across the state ever since first picking up a club.

“I got started because my mom made me because she thought it would be a good life thing to be able to do,” Winters said while standing inside the Lincolnshire Fields Country Club golf shop, her with mother Amanda walking nearby. “I was so mad because I thought it was like a nerdy sport. ... You see all these old people playing it.”

That was Winters’ viewpoint when she was in sixth grade at Judah Christian. How about in the fall of 2021, when she was named the News-Gazette All-Area girls’ Golfer of the Year?

“I ended up loving it,” Winters said. “It’s more individual than the past sports I’ve played. ... You just have to rely on yourself. You don’t have to rely on others and how they do.”

Winters was more than just reliable during her third season on M-S coach Troy Gagne’s team. She and St. Thomas More senior Brooke Erhard planted themselves firmly upon a different plateau than the area’s other girls’ golfers.

And Winters bagged the Golfer of the Year honor after averaging 41 strokes per nine holes, winning the Apollo Conference Tournament individual title, finishing first in the Class 1A St. Thomas More Regional, claiming ninth place in the 1A Auburn Sectional and swinging her way to a share of 13th place in the 1A state tournament.

Winters almost became the first athlete in Bulldogs girls’ golf history to earn a state medal, this season awarded to the tournament’s top 10 finishers.

And she guided the Bulldogs to their first team regional championship since 2014.

A pretty impressive list of accolades for someone who initially expressed no interest in golf.

“I just wanted to do my best,” Winters said. “I never dreamed that I’d accomplish so much.”

★ ★ ★

Though Winters wasn’t overly excited to begin her golf career, she admitted to coming around on the sport after just once practice.

Winters’ road from that day in sixth grade to the present hasn’t exactly gone smoothly.

“There’s been plenty of times I told my dad I’m quitting golf just because I got so frustrated,” Winters said. “I just love the game. It’s my favorite one I’ve played so far.”

Winters’ parents have stepped up in a big way to further their daughter’s golf prowess. Gagne acknowledged that “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more supportive set of parents” than Amanda and Jeff Winters.

“We’re thankful that we’ve been able to give her these opportunities,” Amanda said. “My husband has sacrificed a lot. Every Saturday after work — he works six days a week — he’s sacrificed a lot to be able to spend those days with her and those evenings with her on the golf course.”

Jeff actually researched a golf camp at Oklahoma State University that his daughter attended last summer. The Winters family also possesses a net and turf flooring in one of its garage bays so Ainsley can get swings in during the colder months.

“(Jeff) does not play. He taught himself the game when (Ainsley) showed interest,” Amanda said. “So I’m very thankful.”

Ainsley spent an entire week in Stillwater, Okla., learning more about golf and forging friendships beyond Illinois’ borders.

“I was nervous because I didn’t know anyone, but I was excited to obviously be away from my parents,” Winters said with a laugh. “I was excited to get to experience the dorm life before college. ... I had two other roommates, and we got college food and it was really fun.”

Winters’ biggest takeaway from the camp instruction she received: “To slow down.”

“Like just in my swing,” Winters said. “I noticed that once I did slow down my swing, the balls were going straighter and I was able to get everything under control.”

Winters’ time spent in the family garage is far less glamorous.

“(The net) is about as wide as a (swing) simulator would be. It’s not as fun as hitting outside, but it keeps my swing going,” Winters said. “I’ve hit the mower a couple times. We make sure to take my mom’s car out before we start.”

★ ★ ★

Winters is a year-round golfer at this stage in her life.

On top of those garage-based repetitions during typical non-outdoor months, she’ll head over to Mahomet’s Lake of the Woods Golf Course and hit at the simulator in the pro shop’s loft.

But it was in the warm, sunny months when Winters really saw her game blossom leading up to her junior campaign with the Bulldogs.

Beyond the Oklahoma State camp, Winters participated in double-digit events on The Prep Tour. One highlight was placing second in the Illinois State Summer Junior Championship at Weibring Golf Club in Normal.

“She started to develop a little bit of confidence,” Gagne said. “Her game was pretty solid coming in as a freshman. It was more of a confidence and reps thing for her.”

Winters picked up medalist distinction in her second event of the 2021 season, a dual win over Tuscola.

She claimed either outright medalist or a share of first place in two more tournaments before August concluded.

She then placed second in the Champaign/Piatt County Tournament and seventh in the Livingston County Invitational. But the regular-season peak was that Apollo Conference Tournament triumph at Meadowview Golf Course in Mattoon in late September when she fired an 88 to win by three strokes.

“Now, she expects to be there,” Gagne said. “She understands what to do to play through that pressure.”

Gagne said Winters’ course management improved drastically this season, sending her scores even lower. The Ainsley Winters of the past, Gagne said, might try to bomb a green just because she has the strength to do so, regardless of surrounding hazards.

Not anymore.

“We had a lot of conversations about thinking your way around the golf course,” Gagne said. “If your favorite shot is a 60-yard shot ... hit your iron to 60 yards, where there’s no trouble, and then hit to the green. I think she saw the benefits of that right away. At worst she was getting bogeys, and mostly pars and the occasional birdie.”

★ ★ ★

Winters carried this mindset to Lincolnshire Fields for September’s Class 1A St. Thomas More Regional, in which she logged three birdies and nine pars en route to a 3-over 75 total and the regional’s top spot individually.

“I felt that it was going to be a good day, but I didn’t realize how well it was going to go,” Winters said. “I played (at Lincolnshire Fields) when I was younger, and I’ve never done that well. To come back and win a big tournament here, it means a lot just to be able to see my improvement over the years.”

Winters held off STM’s Erhard by two strokes for regional medalist honors.

“A big turning point for her was beating Brooke and proving she could do it because Brooke had had her number in the past,” Gagne said. “Certainly, I thought she was capable of hanging with her. I didn’t know if she had the confidence and mental toughness to pull that off (at the regional).”

Winters couldn’t quite push the Bulldogs to state as a group. They finished fifth in the 1A Auburn Sectional, and Winters was forced to go it alone — along with Erhard — at Decatur’s Red Tail Run Golf Course for the state tournament in October.

“(This season) was definitely more fun than the past because we advanced further as a team,” Winters said. “It’s better looking for next season because we know we have a chance to compete at state as a team, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Winters also has the opportunity to vie for individual state hardware.

“Top five for state. That’s my coach’s goal for me,” Winters said, “and we’re going to try to fulfill it.”

That’ll mean more time swinging in the garage and at Lake of the Woods’ simulator during the winter.

More Prep Tour events in the spring and summer.

If she’s fortunate enough, maybe another camp during the offseason as well.

Winters still has one more chapter to write in M-S girls’ golf history.

“For sure she’s got that goal. She’s got that in her head,” Gagne said. “She definitely has lofty goals, and I love that about her.”

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