When Iowa golfer Dana Lerner, born in Israel, lived in Wisconsin, she went with her dad to play golf because when they finished playing, she would get ice cream and candy.

Lerner moved back to Israel when she was eight and continued playing golf, where she fell in love with the game. Living in Caesarea, she was right by the one 18-hole golf course in the country.

“I think when I was around 12-ish, I decided I want to focus on golf,” Lerner said. “There’s not a lot of competition in Israel, just because there’s not a lot of people that play. So, I would try to play different tournaments in Europe and, like, come to the [United States]. That was probably when I was a little older.”

At the Caesarea Golf Club, Lerner would play in the Israel Open, which she has won three times. When Lerner was growing up, there were two older female golfers competing from Israel who played golf in college. Lerner looked up to them and wanted to follow in their footsteps.

In 2017, Lerner competed in the Maccabiah Games — commonly referred to as the “Jewish Olympics” — and finished second within her division.

“Just the whole experience of having so many people from all over the world come together and play golf and play all different sports in Israel is pretty awesome,” Lerner said. “There is a very big ceremony where you get to walk with an entire Israeli team and all the countries walk in the open ceremony with their flag and wears uniforms, so it’s a pretty awesome experience.”

With Lerner’s goal set on playing college golf, she had tried to talk to a few schools, but her plans changed when she played in a tournament in Wisconsin and was discovered by Iowa assistant coach Michael Roters in 2017.

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After winning a tournament in San Francisco, Lerner was invited to the Iowa campus, which she fell in love with and knew it would be the college for her. She started playing golf for the Hawkeyes in 2018.

Though statistically her best performances came in the 2018-19 season, Lerner said that she has progressed.

“I think I’ve become a lot more consistent,” Lerner said. “Just like the way I actually hit the ball coming into my freshman year, I wasn’t very confident with my chipping and I feel like that’s something I worked on a lot my freshman year with coaches is to build the confidence and increase my knowledge on the different shots I can hit.”

Lerner said her culture has been welcomed in Iowa City. She has made Israeli food for the team, and her teammates have come over to her apartment to eat traditional Israeli dishes for dinner.

When the spring season was canceled, Lerner went to Long Island, where her family lives now, but after a few months came back to Iowa City to practice and play with some of her teammates. Like many other people, she hopes there is a fall season, though that’s in question.

After college, Lerner will complete her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, which she’ll do for at least two years, and then move on.

She said she wants to continue her golf career, though she understands that she might not have a chance of making it on tour. If that happens, she’ll probably still play golf multiple times a week.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to stop playing golf,” Lerner said.