THE MODERATOR: We are here with 2022 champion Jill McGill. Welcome back to San Diego Country Club. How does it feel to be back?
JILL McGILL: It feels great. I won the Amateur here, so I have a lot of good memories. I also lived in San Diego for quite a few years. 10 years ago is when we left, so everything about it feels familiar, and I hope I can just soak it all in.
Q. For those who have never seen this golf course, describe it, but also describe how different it is since 1993.
JILL McGILL: Currently it's pretty interesting. There's different strains of grass, and I feel as though that is going to present a challenge. You never know if you're going to get a flier or jumper, whatever you want to call it, or it's going to sit down.
The green complexes are exactly the same except for the grass is now poa annua. In '93 it was bent. So there's a little bit of a difference, especially in the afternoons, in the way that the ball is going to roll.
The other major difference everybody is talking about, along with the different grass, were the trees, and if I understand correctly, 500 of them have been removed. So the pros of that is you get an ocean view from some parts of the golf course and from the clubhouse. The cons are the visuals in terms of working the ball around the trees and hitting some of those shaped shots that we did back in '93.
Q. '93 was a huge moment in your career. What do you remember from that week?
JILL McGILL: It's funny, walking around the golf courses, I remember putts here, putts there, chips. I was telling my playing partners in my practice round, I hit an 8-iron chip and run right here, and I can tell you about all my round if you want.
The shots into the green and having good speed on the greens, I think, is the No. 1 key out here, and to embrace downhill putts, there's no way you're not going to have downhill putts.
But I mean, it's really good to be back.
Q. There's a handful of you who played in '93 and are here. Two of you are now Senior Women's Open champions. You beat Leta in the round of 16 that year. If you had told you then that you'd be back here playing in the Senior Women's Open, what do you think young Jill would have said?
JILL McGILL: I mean, what young Jill would have said, I would have been like, whoa, I don't even know if I'm going to be playing golf then. I mean, it was such a great opportunity.
What I've really noticed, too, since '22 and now to '25 is you look at the makeup of the field, and this event has really grown. It definitely is a national championship that women who are over 50 really are embracing and really wanting to come out and do their best and showcase that women over 50 are great athletes.
Q. Do you want to talk a little bit about your hats this week?
JILL McGILL: Oh, yes. Now I'm going to get choked up. I believe, also Liz Benson, when she played in college at UCLA, my rival to USC, when I won the Amateur here in '93, she and I were very good friends. I stayed with she and her family when I won that.
I think about that house, staring at myself in the mirror the morning of the finals, you can do it, you're going to do it. She was always such a great cheerleader, smart as a whip, and after her golf career had finished on the Futures Tour and on the LPGA, she came back here to San Diego Country Club, and she was a phenomenal asset to this club, beloved by members and everybody around her. She was such a great personality.
Unfortunately ovarian cancer was caught too late and she passed away just over a year ago, June 3, 2024. She obviously is very important to this community, was very important to this community, and just the celebration of life was a great indicator of that, how many people showed up to celebrate how Liz had touched their lives.
That's what the hat is for.
Q. And a few other players wearing it this week, too, I saw.
JILL McGILL: Yeah, I think it's great. Unfortunately through the death, it brings up the fact that, not to stand on a soapbox, but women fighting health issues and research about women going into perimenopause, menopause, and research that needs to be done, a test that can be given so all of us can feel better and healthier moving forward into that second act into our lives, so to speak.
I love that everybody is embracing it, and if you ask half the field out here, everybody knows who Liz is. She's an inspiration.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports