U.S SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2024

Jill McGill

Fox Chapel Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please welcome our 2022 champion, Jill McGill. Just talk about what it feels like to be back at the Senior Women's Open.

JILL McGILL: It's such a great event, the Senior Women's Open. Once a year we get to come out and see the best of the best who are 50 and over, and the competitive juices flow for all of us. We still want to be out there and be world beaters and win this. To have an event to come to that is first class, that the USGA does such an amazing job supporting the women, especially as we get more mature and have more experience that they're supporting us.

Q. You won on a pretty different golf course at NCR. Talk about Fox Chapel for those who haven't seen it.

JILL McGILL: The one comparison I will make is that the green complexes are both fairly sizable, so lag putting most likely will be at a premium unless you have wedges in the whole time.

So that bodes well for if you're a good speed putter. But there are some nuances here to Fox Chapel. It's such a joy to be out here on this golf course. It has so much character. I can see why it's so historic with events here, and I think people will enjoy coming out and watching the golf this week.

Q. We spent some time with you last year watching how you juggle your life. How much golf have you gotten in since we saw you last?

JILL McGILL: I tried to get in a little more golf this year than I did last year, so I was trying to count up my rounds of golf coming in here, and I don't want it to seem like I don't care because I'm doing a lot away from the golf course. That phrase "smarter, not harder," I take that to heart right now. I maybe have played 16, 17 rounds of golf.

Q. You were a first-timer a few years ago. We have 22 first-timers in the field this year. What would your advice be to them?

JILL McGILL: I think it will feel different for somebody who has experience as a professional who played week in and week out to somebody who is playing in a USGA event, let alone a Women's U.S. Open, and they may get paired with a JoAnne Carner who's legendary or a Laura Davies or somebody like that. So the best advice I could give, if they don't have that experience, is just pretend you're out playing at home with your buddies, try to make the best swings you can and enjoy the journey when you're here this week.

Q. You've got your sister Shelly here again. How does she support you and help you?

JILL McGILL: I really wish she wasn't on the bag this year. I caddied for her in the U.S. Senior Women's qualifier, and I would like to make it publicly known that by the third or fourth hole I was really questioning my caddie skills. It was windy, about 25 miles an hour, and I kept saying to her, are you sure you're hitting it solidly? It looks good, but the yardages seem to be off. Finally on the 7th hole she takes the yardage thing, she goes, oh, my gosh, I forgot to change it back from meters to yards. I said, this is not my fault.

Anyway, Shelly, sorry I had to share that with the world.

But it's great to have her on the bag. We really have good chemistry out there, and I'd rather see her playing out here, and I'd go to plan B, but that's the way it is.

Q. This event is kind of neat. The fans get to walk with you. In LPGA events that would never happen. What's that like and how do you handle that?

JILL McGILL: I feel off the energy of fans being around and people enjoying what I'm doing. So for me, it's great.

I like to take all the positive energy that I can get, and I think it's fabulous that people get an up-close and in-person experience of seeing some of the best women golfers in the world. You have Annika Sorenstam out here where nobody has even been close to accomplishing what she has done. To be able to get that feel I think is something really special.

Q. Can you talk about the 17th hole and how unique it is and how it may impact who wins this championship?

JILL McGILL: Okay, the par-3? Is the par-3 the 17th hole? I have to calculate; I haven't been around.

The par-3 is interesting. In my mind, it's two entirely different golf holes. It is a long par-3 if the pin is in the back, and it's a short par-3 if the pin is in the front.

For me anyway, if that pins is in the front, I'm just trying to hit it no more than six or seven yards on to the front of the green and take what it gives me, and on the back I'm trying to make that carry, and if I have a putt from the back of the green up, further up, then so be it.

But I think that that'll be a good hole where if it suits your yardage and you're champing at the bit to go at it, it could be a green zone all the way. For me otherwise I'm looking at it and saying, I just want to put a good swing on it. If I happen to make a 25-, 30-footer, great, and move on.

Q. Did you go down into the swale at all and practice from there, and what choices may you have besides a putter?

JILL McGILL: From the swale I would be surprised if I do anything else than putt. It's in really good condition down there. I practiced putting both to the back side and to the front side, and I think my odds of getting it up-and-down with the putter are greater than a wedge.

Q. Obviously we had three inches of rain yesterday. Can you talk about the differences from say Monday to today with the course?

JILL McGILL: Sure, Monday when I came out here and played a practice round I was getting release in the fairways as well as on the greens. Today everything was sticking, so I was looking at pure carry yardage.

But the greens and the condition of this course for how much rain it's absorbed in the last 36 hours is unbelievable. I mean, we could go out and play today, we most likely would be having ball in hand. Every single ball I played today had mud on it.

But the greens are still very playable. They're rolling very nicely. It's top-notch.

Q. Is there a course maybe that's comparable to the green complexes, because you alluded to that earlier, where there's so many different separate quadrants on these greens?

JILL McGILL: Well, I definitely need to go back to my sophomore year and my geometry to see how the green layouts are and get a compass and try to figure it out. It's very interesting, the blue dot which measures the front of the green sometimes is in a place that you wouldn't expect.

But I mean, I think going around here you can guess where the pins are going to be, and you can segment off those greens and use the ridges in your favor.