Women’s golf was expected to get a boost in Colorado with the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club, and one of the biggest benefactors could be the Colorado Women’s Open.
The tournament, scheduled Wednesday through Friday at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, will include at least 27 entrants who are competing in today’s U.S. Open sectional qualifying at the Denver Country Club.
“I think a lot of players looked at the calendar and decided that if they were going to be here for one day, they might as well stay for five and play in our tournament,” said LindaSue Cheno- weth, the executive director of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation. “And then if they made it into the U.S. Open, they would get to stay for two weeks.”
There are three qualifying spots available in the sectional.
One of those looking to cash in is Shelley McGill, who is eyeing a rematch with her little sister. Jill McGill is a veteran touring pro from Denver and is among 59 LPGA players exempted for the U.S. Open.
Shelley McGill is a former U.S. Ski Team member (1995-2000) who is 4 1/2 years into her professional golf career as a teaching pro. She is determined to get onto the LPGA Tour. She advanced to the U.S. Open sectional qualifying here from a regional tournament in Frisco, Texas.
“I’ve never come this close before,” Shelley McGill said. “How cool would it be to be back in your hometown on your home course, Cherry Hills, playing in the U.S. Open with your little sister? Just to qualify would be amazing, but to be competing against a sibling would just be incredible.”
The McGill sisters have played together only once – last Christmas during a family outing at the San Diego Country Club, where Jill won the U.S. Amateur championship in 1993. “We got up on the first tee and she asked me how many strokes I wanted,” Shelley McGill said. “I said, ‘None.’ After the first nine holes, she asked me again. I said, ‘Four.’ She said, ‘OK, whatever makes you sleep at night.’
“I got my rear handed to me.”
But since, a back-to-the-basics swing adjustment Shelley McGill learned from fiancé Michael Harding has added 30 to 40 yards to her drives.
“She’s now a much more formidable force,” said Harding, a teaching pro from South Africa who once played on the European Tour.
While it was her fiancé who got her going, it was her sister who got her started.
“To be honest, I caddied for her one summer, and that’s actually how I fell in love with the game,” said Shelley McGill, who works in Dallas. “Until then, I really had no interest in golf. I think it was the strategy that really intrigued me. … Now, the plan is to get out on the tour and try to become one of the best players in the world.”
Shelley McGill is one of 135 players who will be competing for a record $55,000 purse at the 54-hole Colorado Open. She played in the tournament in 2002 but failed to make the cut.
Among those not in the field is Julie Tvede, the defending champion from Denmark.
“I would have loved to play in it,” Tvede said. “But it falls in the same week as a Futures Tournament event, and I just thought if I want to give myself the best chance to get to the top of the money rankings, I would have to play in all the tournaments.”
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
