Year: 2022
Award: Golf, Senior
Location/Affiliation: Professional
- U.S. Senior Women’s Open Champion
- One of golf’s greats with 3 different USGA titles
Where were you in 1994? Our next winner had turned pro on the LPGA tour after a successful USGA amateur and collegiate career at the University of Southern California where she was a two-time All-American. McGill won two USGA championships, the 1993 U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf title, the 1994 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links tournament and was named the 1993 SWOC Sportswoman of the Year. Fast forward 28 years and McGill entered the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Open as a rookie. On the final day of match play, McGill was paired with one of golf’s greats, Annika Sorenstam. Sorenstam told her she was going to win; McGill had no idea.
The win was McGill’s first since 1994 and marked her first professional golf tournament victory at age 50. The win placed her among golf’s elite: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, JoAnne Carner and Carol Semple Thompson as the only players with three different USGA titles. In 1990, the Cherry Creek High School senior claimed the first sanctioned Colorado state high school girls golf tournament. One of Colorado’s most successful female golfers, Jill McGill.