DIXON — Many sports legacies are based on winning and success, but those aren’t the only things that drive players.

For a group of local golfers who enjoy playing the rounds at Timber Creek Golf Course, numbers on a scorecard tell the hole story, but not the whole story. For them, the legacy of the game they love to play can also be found in the friends they make and the memories they share with like-minded linksters.

Fortunately, the Timber Creek team has been successful at doing both: winning games and winning friends.

At the 102nd annual Women’s Lincoln Highway golf tournament on July 11-12 at Timber Creek, the team of Mimi Boysen, Barb Curia, Reese Dambman, Katie Drew, Patty Head, Nikki Masini, Kristie Pultorak and Mindy Wallin won the championship for the third straight year. Drew was the overall winner, and Boysen, Curia, Head, Masini and Pultorak each won among their flight groups. Janet Friel and Patty Oliver were the team’s alternates.

Some of the women have played with each other before, while some played with one another for the first time, but they all came together as a group to reign at the top of northern Illinois’ premier amateur, best-against-bogey tournament.

“The tournament itself is a fun format,” Drew said. “It’s with ladies of all ages, and it has a competitive feel to it, but you can still come out and have fun. There’s a pressure to it in the sense of competitive golf, but at the end of the day we’re out here to have fun.”

Scoring is different than the national mainstream professional tournaments. Instead of the widely known stroke-play concept, the tournament uses a best-against-bogey format to help erase some of the moments where certain holes may take their toll on golfers — in other words, the scoring isn’t as bad if it takes a large number of strokes to finish.

Drew, a sophomore at Sauk Valley Community College and last year’s individual runner-up, helped the Timber Creek women win this year’s team title with a +87 two-day total. Kishwaukee Country Club of DeKalb, which has won the event 48 times, was second at +50. Drew’s score of +32 was better than the +25 of runner-up Alayna Bryant of PrairieView.

Dambman had the second-best score of Timber Creek’s golfers with +16, finishing runner-up in the second flight. Head (+16) won the third flight, Pultorak (+11), won the fourth, Masini (+4) the fifth, Boysen (+2) the sixth and Curia (+8) in the seventh. The win is the 11th in course history, and ranks third all-time behind Kishwaukee and the former Clinton Country Club (12).

Boysen’s score also was best among participants 65 years and older. For her, the tournament is about more than scores; it encompasses the unique spirit of competition and community.

“I think it’s the greatest tournament in the world,” Boysen said. “I’ve played a lot of competitive golf, but this is by far my favorite tournament. Being a bogey golfer, I love that I can do well and can compete against the long ball hitters. What sport can you play that you can have such a wide age group? That’s a cool thing, too.”

Most Lincoln Highway golfers join their team through a qualifier event on their course; other courses either select participants or have a sign-up sheet at their clubhouse. It’s been both ways at various stages at Timber Creek, but its recent successes have led to more of its golfers wanting to compete to get in the eight spots and two alternate positions.

Head has played in about 30 tournaments, including each one in the past two decades after taking a long break from golf. Not much has changed from her first tournament, she said: The event is competitive and fun.

“There’s a lot of camaraderie, there’s a lot of people who come back and you meet again every year,” Head said. “People just really have fun. I’ve always thought it’s kind of a family, and there’s still that same kind of level of competition. I played during the Ruth Heal [Kishwaukee] and Gloria Jenkins [Rochelle Country Club] era, and couldn’t have played with nicer people who really exemplified what golf is all about.”

Dambman, a senior at Dixon High School, is the youngest member of the team. She was encouraged by DHS golf coach Lee Eastman to play this year, and it gave her the opportunity to play on the same team again as Drew, who graduated from DHS two years prior. She also had help from her father, Jared, who served as her caddy.

“It’s an honor to be a part of this and to be able to contribute to it in any way I could,” Dambman said. “I’ve never played the format, so I thought it was really cool experience, and I had a lot of fun.”

That spirit of fun and friendship if what defines the tournament for many of the players.

“When I first started playing, I didn’t know anybody,” Pultorak said. “Then I saw all of these women hugging each other from other teams, or ones who haven’t seen each other for over a year. Now that’s me. I’m seeing people who I haven’t seen or competed against or with who had some memorable shots or embarrassing moments with.”

That kind of connection is what keeps so many golfers coming back, year after year. Curia lights up when she talks about the women she plays alongside.

“I just enjoy being around all of the ladies,” Curia said. “It’s a great group of ladies from all of the different courses around here, and a lot of them have been playing in the tournament for a lot of years. Some are new, some are old, and it’s fun.”

That warmth extends well beyond Timber Creek’s team, and friendships continue to grow. Wallin found that out playing in the tournament for the first time this year.

“Everybody’s super welcoming, and even during the tournament the ladies I played with were super nice, and there were some that I exchanged phone numbers with to golf with later,” Wallin said. “The camaraderie of not only your team, but all of the teams just wanting to go out and having a good time and play well is great.”

While camaraderie is at the heart of it all, there’s also a pride that comes with representing Timber Creek; for Friel, it shines through when she steps onto the course.

“I feel Timber Creek has a lot of good ladies golfers who just love the game,” Friel said. “It’s a real honor to get out and do the best we can, and come out on top.”

Like Head, Friel also has played in the tournament on other teams. She played in her first Lincoln Highway three year ago, and when she took that first shot at it, her golf game has improved, she said.

“Three years ago they were short a player at Deer Valley, and I had never played it before,” Friel said. “They said, ‘Would you do it?’ Absolutely. The five days before, I didn’t sleep. I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, I didn’t know the scoring or anything. I had one of my golf friends caddy for me and help me out because she had played in it. Now I love it. It’s just a joy to be with a group of friends.”

Friendship isn’t the only winning combination on the course. Family have created moments that have become special memories, too. The wide range of ages in the tournament make it possible for mothers and daughters to play with each other. When Curia played her daughter Mandy for the first time a few years ago (when the tournament was at Deer Valley), it became a precious memory of hers.

“My memory is when we played at Deer Valley and I was on the team,” Curia said. “I played, and my daughter played, and it was fun playing with all of these girls, and really nice playing on the same team with my daughter.”

As much fun as the tournaments is, winning still stands out as a highlight of the game.

“The first two years I played, we got smoked by Kishwaukee by about 75 points, and then we went to Lake Carroll two years ago and we beat them,” Drew said. That win was the first of Timber Creek’s current run of three straight titles. “It was kind of like, wow! We hadn’t been anywhere close. After the first day, we had a little bit of a lead, and then we wound up winning it. It was really cool.”

Boysen won the event in 2017 at Prophet Hills in Prophetstown, fending off runner-up Heal, who has won it 21 times in her career.

“I had beaten Ruth Heal, who has won this forever,” Boysen said. “I came out of the fifth flight to win the whole thing. I had my second-best score ever. It was a great course for me and it was fun to win the whole thing.”

For Dambman and Wallin, being in their first Lincoln Highway is a special memory. Wallin said she’ll always look back at one moment when she got a little too excited about sinking a big putt of about 35 yards on No. 9.

“I screamed, and then I realized that Katie and her crew were putting on No. 3,” Wallin said. “I did a little dance, and then I saw these people being very serious, and I’m like, ‘Whoops!’”

Though teams and times may change, and highs and lows come and go, the Timber Creek women know the friendships they’ve built will last beyond the final putts. More than just champs, they’ve become ambassadors of what the event represents: promoting the game they love to play through camaraderie and competition on the course.

“It shows that people are wanting to be a part of it,” Drew said. “It draws more people into it who enjoy golf.”

How it went

At Timber Creek Golf Course, Dixon

102nd Women’s Lincoln Highway Tournament

(best-against-bogey scoring)

Team standings

1. Timber Creek (Dixon) +87, 2. Kishwaukee (DeKalb) +50, 3. Deer Valley (Deer Grove) +37, 4. PrairieView (Byron) +23, 5. Lake Carroll (Lanark) -12, 6. Shady Oaks (Amboy) -21, 7. Indian Oaks (Shabbona) -22, 8. Prophet Hills (Prophetstown) -40, 9. Sunset (Mount Morris) -45

Winner: Katie Drew (TC) +32

Runner-up: Alayna Bryant (P) +25

65-and-older winner: Mimi Boysen (TC) +2

Flight winners, runners-up and Timber Creek results:

1. Kim Kester (K) +23, Ava Hackman (S) +15

2. Jan Nissen (K) +19, Reese Dambman (TC) +16

3. Patty Head (TC) +16, Donna Martin (K) +12

4. Kristie Plutorak (TC) +11, Madison Thatcher (DV) +5

5. Nikki Masini (TC) +4, Trina Kotulek (SO) -1

6. Boysen (TC) +2, Debbie Brue (K) -3

7. Barb Curia (TC) +8, Karen Anderson (DV) +6

8. Denise Oberle (DV) +2, Donna Pfleeger (K) 0, Mindy Wallin (TC) -7