By Alex Miceli

Cherry Hills Village, Colo. – With two USGA championships under her belt and a return to her home course, one would think that Jill McGill is excited about this year’s Women’s Open.

Playing her best golf since she turned professional in 1996 after graduating from the University of Southern California, McGill is becoming a player to reckon with on the LPGA Tour.

But this week McGill comes to her own backyard to play in her 12th Women’s Open, an event she has had little success in. Her best finish is tie for 12th in 2002. This year may be different for McGill for a couple of reasons, one being her familiarity with the Cherry Hills course.

"I think any time you play a golf course a lot, when you have been on that course, maybe it sets up to your eye a little bit better. You can see the shots you have seen, how they react on the greens," she said. "When I was here a month ago, it kind of came flooding back to he me, which way the greens break, what the ball does when it lands on the green, which way it releases, where the best spot is to come into the green. So anytime you play you have played a golf course that much, I think you have a little bit of an advantage."

Coupled with that advantage is the fact that McGill is playing better that she has ever before as a professional. With earnings of $281,303, McGill ranks 17th on the LPGA money list and has already surpassed her total of $238,181 from last year, which ranked 50th. She is also closing in on her career best of $340,991 that she accomplished in 2001. Coincidentally that was the last year that McGill had a runner-up finish on the LPGA Tour when she tied for second at the Michelob Light Classic, shooting a career low round of 63. This year McGill finished a solo second to Cristie Kerr at the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.

Now McGill will have to take that knowledge she has from playing Cherry Hills as a young amateur and hopefully use superior play to offset the challenge of an exacting Women’s Open setup.

"I approach the holes a little bit differently having a different perspective on what I am trying to accomplish, rather than hit my driver and not care where it goes, get up and hit it the next time," said McGill said of her younger days at Cherry Hills. "This is a tournament of the fewest mistakes, and the rough is mainly the biggest difference."

McGill’s home course advantage may be negated by her inability to hit fairways on a consistent basis. In 2004 McGill ranked 132^nd in fairways hit with just more than 65 percent hit off the tee. This year she is basically in the same spot, again nailing a hair more than 65 percent but is ranked 10 spots higher, in 122^nd place.

At 6,749 yards, Cherry Hills is the longest course the Women’s Open has ever seen, surpassing Pumpkin Ridge G.C. when it hosted the 2003 Open. But when one adds in the difference in altitude -- Cherry Hills is more than a mile above sea level -- the length is not as much an issue. Most players will subtract nine-to-10 percent off the distance on each shot. So length will not be as much of an issue as precision off the tee.

"The course sets up where you don't have to have a tremendous amount of length, so the rough is your penalty if you don't hit it straight," said McGill.

While many factors support a good week for McGill, the biggest negative is her driving accuracy. If she can control the ball off the tee, McGill seems like a good bet this week, but if she has problems in that area, the rough will most likely make it difficult for her to surpass her tied for 12th-place finish in 1992.

Alex Miceli is a free-lance writer.