When Maggie Leif started playing on the Lyle-Pacelli golf team as a seventh grader, it was a team. The Athletics fielded a full squad and they even won the Subsection 1A West meet in 2010.

Last year Leif was a little lonely on the golf course. She didn’t have a teammate and she grew accustomed to having just one or zero opponents on meet days. Leif, who has a seventh grader as her only teammate this season, isn’t sure why other girls golfers have stopped coming out, but she still enjoys her time on the course.

Leif learned the game from her older sisters Emily and Abby.

“I just like playing golf. I’ve always had an interest in it and it ran in our family,” she said. “It’s like a mind game for me. I set my goals for every hole and I try to reach those goals. I think it’s really fun.”

Girls golfers like Leif are getting harder and harder to find.

As of Wednesday, the school districts of LP, Southland, Blooming Prairie, Hayfield, Grand Meadow and LeRoy-Ostrander have a combined total of just seven girls playing varsity golf this Spring and none of those schools had enough players to put up a team score this year. Of the girls that are playing, half of them are middle schoolers with very little experience.

“I think the Tiger [Woods] effect has worn off,” LP head coach Mark Buntje said. “That’s just golfers in general, with boys and girls. Golf is a hard sport to get them to come out for because they’ve got to have clubs and they’ve got to know what to do.”

The Section 1A golf meet had to make a big adjustment this year because of low numbers in boys and girls golf teams. Instead of having a subsection meet before the section meet, there will be only one two-day section meet. Last year, the Blooming Prairie girls golf team was able to win a subsection title by simply showing up and putting in four scores.

“I told my girls not to get DQ’d and we’d be fine,” BP head coach Erik Vigeland said.

Now BP has just three girls golfers on its roster and one of them, sophomore Taylor Christianson was a state qualifier last Spring. Vigeland said it is the first time in 15 years that BP hasn’t had at least six girls golfers.

He attributes the lack of interest for a few reasons. Golf is expensive, small schools have three sports in the Spring —which limits the number of students that can play each sport, and people simply aren’t playing golf like they used to.

“When I was growing up we went out to the golf course and that’s what my family did for fun,” Vigeland said. “Families don’t do that anymore. It’s expensive and it takes up time. Everyone seems like they’re busier and they’re more in a rush to do things these days.”

Southland head coach Tim Brennan echoed Vigeland’s view on golf not being the family sport that it used to. The Rebels had a full girls team two years ago and they had two players on the varsity squad last season, but this year they will not have any girls golfers competing on the varsity team.

Brennan said it is difficult to keep girls out for golf once they become juniors and seniors.

“Golf is a very solitary sport. There’s no crowds and you don’t get the ovation,” Brennan said. “It doesn’t seem like a lot of them play in the summer. There are volleyball and basketball camps and AAU leagues, and a round of golf can take two and half hours.”

The cost of golf club memberships can also take a toll on families and clubs aren’t cheap either. A top of the line drive can go for as much as $400.

“There’s so many factors and kids just aren’t participating as much in sports as they used to,” Vigeland said. “In a small town, one of the coolest things is you can participate in three sports. In the bigger cities, you’re lucky to be varsity in anything. But there’s not as many three sport athletes [in small towns] any more.”

Golf may have some factors that don’t draw in the average high school athlete, but it also has some things that other sports don’t offer. A golfer doesn’t have to deal with refs or an opponent in their face. Golf is also a sport with no age limit. A player can spend his or her life trying to master the game and there is always room for improvement.

Leif, who is hoping to get to the Class A state meet this season, said that golf has taught her about life as she’s learned how to get past bad shots and move on to the next one. It also helped her grow closer to her two older sisters.

“I learned a lot from them and we always had a competition to see who could do the best when all three of us were on the team,” Leif said. “I always looked up to them and they helped me set my goals high and they pushed me together.”

If more area girls don’t start going out for golf, the lessons Leif has learned through the sport, may not be taught to the next round of high school athletes.

The LP golf team is scheduled to open its season against Houston at Meadow Greens Friday at 4:30 p.m.