Roswell is a dusty town in eastern New Mexico perhaps best known for giving the world Nancy Lopez and the 1947 extraterrestrial incident that led to the International UFO Museum and Research Center located there. If Gerina Piller leaves Champions Golf Club with the U.S. Women’s Open Trophy on Sunday, the town will be known for her as well.
Piller, 35, took a significant step toward making her first LPGA victory a major championship with a 2-under-par 69 in Thursday’s first round. Playing the Jackrabbit Course at Champions, she finished two strokes off the lead by Amy Olson. Piller, who was T-5 in the championship last year and T-8 in 2016, has put herself in position to win many times, but this time there could be a different outcome.
“It just really confirms and just really helps me believe that what I have and how I swing the club, it is good enough,” Piller said after her round in which she missed a lot of fairways – eight — but made a lot of putts, needing only 29.
“After coming back from having the baby, I think my body, you may not see it physically, but I know it's changed and my swing has changed, and it's taken me a while to kind of get comfortable in that,” she said. “I'm 35 years old, there's no need to try to reinvent the wheel here. Just really trying to focus on swinging my swing.”
Piller, whose husband Martin has won six times on the Korn Ferry Tour – tied for the second-most all time – missed all of the 2018 season on maternity leave, giving birth to her son Ajeo James in April. She’s played 13 of the 16 events in this abbreviated LPGA season but has failed to crack the top 30 in any of them.
In this era of the teenage sensation, Piller is an oddity. She didn’t even begin playing golf until she was 15, an age at which Lydia Ko had already won two professional tournaments and Lexi Thompson had played in the U.S. Women’s Open four times.
But Piller is a natural athlete who was an all-state volleyball player at Goddard High School, which also produced Lopez. She picked up the game quickly and in 2003 won the state golf championship. That got her into the University of Texas-El Paso, where she won four tournaments her senior year and was the 2007 Conference USA individual champion.
Piller, who has a smooth swing that generates effortless power, made a crucial putt for the USA Solheim Cup team in its come-from-behind victory over Europe in Germany in 2015.
The Americans trailed, 10-6, going into Sunday singles play and Piller holed an 8-footer to defeat Caroline Masson, 1 up. That opened the door for the Americans to win the last five matches and take the Cup, 14½ to 13½.
Piller made a run at the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston last year, closing with a 68 to finish T-5, her best finish in 39 major starts that includes six top 10s in all. She had gotten it to 5 under par on Sunday – Jeongeun Lee6 won at 6 under – but was derailed by bogeys on 13 and 14. That’s an experience she can build on.
“You know, preparation going into this week, I was probably a little stressed out, but just really tried to focus on just swinging my swing and what I have and what I bring to the table is good enough,” she said about her mindset coming into Champions.
“Obviously, birdied the first hole, it's a good start, and just tried to keep focusing on hitting good shots and putting myself in position,” she said. “If you can keep yourself in position, especially on the greens on [Jackrabbit], and I feel like I did pretty good with that. Had two hiccups there, but finished strong and I'm pretty proud of that.”
Piller took up the game relatively late, missed a year on tour to have a baby and this year has struggled as a working mother during a pandemic. But on Thursday she played with a belief that matched her talent. That could lead to an out-of-this-world outcome come Sunday afternoon.
Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer who frequently contributes to USGA digital channels.
