THE MODERATOR: Welcome inside the pressroom here at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. We're here with one of our sponsor's exemptions this week, Jillian Hollis. We'll get to the sponsor's exemption, but you had some success a couple weeks ago on the Epson Tour, won the Circling Raven Championship. Just take me through that, first win in a bit, so pretty exciting I'd imagine.
JILLIAN HOLLIS: Definitely very excited. It was a lot of fun. I had a great week, and I came here the week before and did a little media day, so I'm thinking that Cincinnati is pretty good luck for me.
Q. What was working so well for you at that event that really propelled you to that victory?
JILLIAN HOLLIS: I've been hitting it pretty well all year, and I think my putting has just finally -- like everything has come together, and I made a lot of putts this week, hit a lot of really good shots around the green, as well, and that's where you score. I was able to shoot some really low scores.
It was a lot of fun. I just had a great time that week and played well on top of it.
Q. How good did it feel to finally get a win? I feel like you've been playing pretty well this season, but it had to feel validating to feel like, oh, my gosh, I finally won.
JILLIAN HOLLIS: It did, and while it was happening and even after, it didn't feel a whole lot different because I think my game has been there all year, and I think for it all to finally come together probably a couple days after I was like, wow, it was a really cool feeling to have, like put it all together and have it actually show to everybody else. But I've definitely proven to myself that I can compete again and do what I love and enjoy doing what I love again.
Q. It propels you really to a week here in Cincinnati, got one of the sponsor's invites this week. Being from Ohio, how exciting is it to be here and play in this event, especially just having recent success?
JILLIAN HOLLIS: It's such a privilege to come here and play in my home state and to play in front of everybody like I grew up with. Hopefully I have a lot of Ohio fans here this week. It's just really cool anytime I get to play here. I played in Toledo the last couple years, and it's just a very familiar feeling being here, and I have so many people around here that really love and care and support me.
I'm just super excited to tee it up this week.
Q. It's a little bit different than the Epson Tour I imagine. It can get pretty lonely out there. Being here in your home state, golf hasn't been in Cincinnati for 33 years. How cool has it been for you to see what bringing this championship to this city means and bringing golf back to Ohio in a women's sense or bringing golf back to Cincinnati?
JILLIAN HOLLIS: It's so cool, and Excel has done an amazing job putting this tournament together. I know they've been working on it for not weeks or months but years getting this tournament here. I spoke with some of the people that are working so hard to make this tournament happen, and just all the work that they're putting in, the grounds crew is putting in so much work right now.
I know we have some unexpected rain -- it hasn't rained in Ohio all summer, so I don't really know where that's coming from.
It's so good for women's golf that it's -- I think Ohio is such a great place to play in the summer. It's not great in the winter, but if we can get the LPGA Tour here for 5, 10, 20 more years, I think you'll see more and more tournaments around this area, and just getting to compete in the first one is such an honor. It's really cool.
Q. Kenwood Country Club obviously under a little bit of water right now. We're working on that. But you've seen the course before. What are your thoughts and what do you think about it ahead of this week?
JILLIAN HOLLIS: The course is beautiful. I haven't played here in the past, but I'm really excited -- it looks very green out there, and I know they're taking really good care of it the past couple of days just with all the rain and everything. I see some sunshine in the future, so I'm just going to enjoy every moment. I really am.
It's been a great year. I've had so much fun playing the Epson Tour and getting my confidence back this year and playing a couple LPGA tournaments here and there, as well. I'm just really going to enjoy the heck out of this week.
Q. For a lot of players going back to Epson wouldn't always be the most positive thing but you seemed to make the most of it. You kind of got off to a rough start in 2020 with the pandemic and everything happening. Being a 2020 rookie was always a challenge. How much have you grown and how much has it helped you to be able to go back and forth this season?
JILLIAN HOLLIS: Yeah, it's helped a ton. I really enjoy golf again this year. That's been my journey this year. I had two goals, and one is to play healthy golf. I fought an injury last year, just trying to grind through this slump I was in, and sometimes you push harder and it doesn't always -- kind of had to take a step back and look at a lot of things in my life.
2020 was definitely difficult for me, but I have so many lessons I've learned in the last two years, and I think that's the most important thing, like you can either let those things kind of beat you down or you can turn it around and make it a lesson.
I really enjoy playing golf again. I'm making so much fun of -- not making fun of it, but I'm making the most of every week that I'm playing, whether it's on Epson with all of my friends out there, who are like the most supportive group of girls and such great talent out there. I haven't played there the last two years, and just seeing some of the girls out there and just how supportive they are, it's like a family.
Of course we all want to beat each other every week, but it's been fun. It hasn't been lonely.
Coming out here and seeing all of my old friends again, as well, is also really cool. Just trying to stay present and enjoy it all.
Q. Just speak to a little bit, you obviously did the Media Day, Kroger, P&G, really doing what they can to elevate the game with this new tournament coming out and supporting this year. As a player what's been out here, what's that support mean to you especially playing here on a sponsor's exemption?
JILLIAN HOLLIS: Yeah, it's so great. Kroger and P&G, they're such big companies as well as St. Elizabeth who's sponsoring me this week, and the support I've received from St. Elizabeth has been amazing. Like they're near this area, and just to reach out to me and want to help me and be -- not only help me, but they wrote me a card. They congratulated me when I won two weeks ago. Just all the love that I've been feeling from them is so great, and the sponsors that are putting on this tournament, like we couldn't do it without them.
For them to be supporting women's golf, I think more people can relate to a woman golfer, professional LPGA woman's golfer's game as far as tempo and short game. I don't want to see it as men's golf and women's golf, I would love it see it all as one big community, and I think that's what we're really striving to do, not like that division of this versus this, but to bring it all together.
I think Kroger and P&G have that vision for this week and just for women's golf in general.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports