KETTERING, Ohio – Jill McGill stepped up to tap in her bogey putt on the 18th green at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open when Annika Sorenstam said, “No, no, no, mark.” A confused McGill turned and asked why.
“She goes, ‘You’re going to win,’” said McGill. “I was like, what? I really had no idea.”
McGill hadn’t won a trophy of any kind since 1994, and it was somewhat fitting that the winningest player in modern LPGA history was there to make sure McGill had her moment.
“I wanted to give her a hug,” said Sorenstam, “and say, ‘This is yours, so enjoy the moment, soak it in and let me finish.’”
McGill, 50, entered rarified air with her Senior Women’s Open triumph, joining Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, JoAnne Carner and Carol Semple Thompson as the only players with three different USGA titles. McGill won the 1993 U.S. Women’s Amateur and 1994 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links while a student at USC.
“It’s been a really, really long time,” said McGill, who never won as a professional. “I’d always been a little bit disappointed that I couldn’t figure out how to get it done. I was a different person out there this week, truly, in terms of just acceptance of hey, you’re making the best decision you can. You’re trying to execute the best you can. That’s all you can do.”
On a day when nobody broke par at NCR Country Club, McGill shot even-par 73 to finish at 3-under 289 for the tournament. Leta Lindley, another Senior Women’s Open rookie who won once on the LPGA, in 2008, finished one stroke back.
Lindley, who like McGill now works as a teaching pro, had husband Matt Plagmann back on the bag, just like old times.
“I felt like we picked up right where we left off,” she said, “and it was like putting on really your favorite comfy sweater.”
While the rookies finished 1-2, it was three past champions—Laura Davies (2018), Helen Alfredsson (2019) and Annika Sorenstam (2021)—who entered the final round as the favorites. Together they boast 15 LPGA major titles.
For a while there, it looked like the sun might be Davies’ biggest threat. The 58-year-old felt wobbly after bending over on the sixth hole, and took out a sun umbrella to try to beat the heat.
As Annika Sorenstam—perhaps the most consistent player in the history of the women’s game—put up a shocking 40 on the front nine and Helen Alfredsson shot 39, Davies took a two-stroke lead into the back nine.
McGill shot even on the front and was within striking distance until Davies blew up the leaderboard with a devastating quadruple-bogey eight on the par-4 12th. After hitting her drive left into the trees, Davies’ second shot ricocheted off a tree out of bounds and she never recovered.
She looked shattered when she walked in to meet with the press after a closing 78 that dropped her to a share of sixth.
“About as tough as I’ve ever known it, I think,” said Davies, who has battled a bruised Achilles since the AIG Women’s British Open.
Sorenstam birdied the first hole to draw into a tie with Davies and Alfredsson and looked primed to put on a show. Instead, she put on the brakes. Sorenstam said she didn’t drive the ball well enough this week, but really can’t pinpoint the why. She hit only four fairways in the final round.
When asked what her schedule might look like next year, Sorenstam said it’s too early to tell, but that she won’t play as much as did this year.
“It’s been hard to put this effort in and not get the results,” she said, “and I’m at a point in my life where I have some other fun things going, so I don’t really feel the excitement to come back and play.”
Six amateurs made the cut this week in Kettering. Patricia Ehrhart earned low-amateur honors after finishing 10 over. The 56-year-old Hawaiian is the travel and event manager for the Margaritaville Surf Team. Her three daughters, Scarlett, Lola and Mason, are all members of the team, which is captained by Jimmy Buffett.
Ehrhart has now earned a spot in next year’s field at Waverly Country Club.
McGill joined the LPGA in 1996 and compiled 24 career top 10s. She twice finished runner-up and earned over $2 million, last competing in 2013. McGill promised her two kids, Bella (10) and Blaze (6) that if she was in the top 10 after the first two rounds, they could come up from Dallas with their father to watch on the weekend.
Bella, who is eager to follow in mom’s footsteps, carried the trophy into the media tent after the round and even asked mom a question.
McGill had older sister Shelley O’Keefe, a former mogul skier turned teaching pro, on the bag this week. O’Keefe was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year and had to pull out of her own Senior Women’s Open local qualifier this year with back pain.
While McGill had no idea where things stood down the stretch, O’Keefe was well aware and fought off her emotions on the closing holes.
“Shelley has always been an amazing supportive force for me in my career,” said McGill. “I just love her.
The statuesque McGill credited the work she put in playing competitive tennis – “We think we’re playing Wimbledon” – as an important edge this week.
“The guy that I work with that coaches our team, his name is Jason Warren,” said McGill, “and I was working on my serves, and he’s like, ‘You’ve already done the hard work, so when you go like this you’ve just got to relax and let it flow and really loose arms and really loose shoulders,’ and I really drew from that today about just being loose and being relaxed.”
She also did her best to forget everything she’d felt as an LPGA pro when it counted most. The former Trojan remembers feeling sick to her stomach she was so tense down the stretch as a young pro more than 15 years ago.
Not this time.
McGill became the first American to win this championship and receives a spot in the field at next year’s historic U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. She’s also now exempt into this championship for the next 10 years, which means she’ll be back at San Diego Country Club, site of her U.S. Women’s Amateur victory, for the 2025 Senior Women’s Open.
“I love Pebble Beach,” said McGill, “it’s heaven on earth.”