Dalton didn’t expect his program to become one of the best in the state.

“As long as kids love it, and they try, that's all I care about – that's really all I ever wanted,” he said. “I didn't really kind of anticipate thinking in terms of winning stuff. I hoped that we could win the league a few times, but I try to keep that out of the kid's heads. If you play really well, maybe you'll win something when you're done instead of thinking about their score.”

But success came through developing a youth program, increasing the number of players and teams and by getting players to compete in summer tournaments.

Dalton served as JV coach from 2005-09. When he became head coach, the Elks hadn’t been to state since 2005. And his first team had only one returning starter. So he started a chip and putt program for younger grades. The kids would come to Yankee Trace and work with and get to know the high school players.

That program created team unity and pushed the number of players in the program from a dozen or so to 18 to 23 in succeeding seasons. Dalton was also able to create a varsity B team to further feed and build the top varsity six.

“Just getting the numbers up meant more chances of some random girl catching the bug and liking it,” Dalton said. “That was that process: get more kids, make three teams. That way there's steppingstones.”

Dalton also needed his players to begin to believe they could compete with the more successful programs. He said they would see teams like Mason and expect to lose.

“The method to the madness was to figure out a way to convince them all that they could be as good as everyone else,” he said. “And to stop looking up to the teams to a point of being in awe, and to just think we can play with them.”

Dalton said you can always tell what teams in the Southwest District will be good every year by seeing which program has players competing in summer tournaments. So he began to push that idea. He keeps a spreadsheet of tournaments and what his players are doing in them and sends it to the players and parents.

“It's to remind them that the girls that want to be good are out playing right now, not sitting at home,” Dalton said. “That was the biggest step for us. Parents ask me, ‘How does my daughter get better?’ I tell them it’s simple: have the right equipment, take lessons from a professional, practice and play competitive rounds of golf.”

This year Dalton had only one returning starter from last year’s state championship team. He knows it might take time to get back to state contender level, but he has a system in place.