Dolores girls golf builds momentum as young team learns fast

A 17-stroke jump over two days in Montrose gave Dolores girls golf a clearer sign of progress than any single score could. For a program that returned only last spring after a five-year hiatus, the improvement suggested the Bears are learning how to build a varsity team, not just survive one.

Head coach Cheri Walker has spent this season watching that growth take root in the details. She said the roster is full of students who want to learn and improve, and the gains have shown up in ball striking, course management, short-game work and strategic planning. That matters for Dolores High School because the players are not only golfers. Co-captains Julianne Vega and Jadyn Gorsuch, both members of the Class of 2026, also balance Knowledge Bowl, theater and college coursework while still showing up every day. In a small school system, that kind of buy-in shapes more than a lineup. It sets a standard.

The Bears opened the 2026 spring season with a 12th-place finish in Delta on April 7, then sharpened quickly in Montrose on April 13 and 14. Across those first two varsity events, Dolores cut 17 strokes from day one to day two. Vega was one of the clearest examples of that progress, improving by 11 strokes from her round at Cobble Creek to a 117 at Black Canyon. Walker’s 2026 roster also includes senior Amelia Pym, junior Piper Green and freshman Ekaterina Erlandson, giving the Bears a mix of experience and first-year learning that still has room to grow.

The rise is easier to measure because Dolores has already shown flashes of what this program can become. In April 2025, the Bears finished third at their home Dolores Invitational on Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez, totaling 349 strokes as a team. Samantha Abate shot 112, Vega shot 118, Siena Parr shot 119 and Gorsuch shot 123 in that event, helping establish the program’s first real benchmark after its return to varsity competition.

That comeback carries local weight because Dolores once had a strong run in the middle of the 2010s. Kiselya Plewe and Abigail Smith qualified for state in 2016, and the team finished third at the Class 4A Western Regional in Craig that same year. The current Bears are trying to reconnect with that history while building a foundation for the next wave of players in Dolores County School District RE-2J. The state standard remains high, with the 2025 Colorado girls golf championships played at Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton, but Dolores is already showing the habits that make a lasting contender possible.