Jill McGill

With her victory in Canton at the Tam O'Shanter Golf Course, Jill McGill of Denver, Colo. Joined Pearl Sinn and Amy Fruhwirth as the only players to hold Women's Amateur Public Links and U.S. Women's titles simultaneously.

McGill opened with a solid first-round 71, trailing leader Susan Pankau of San Diego by two strokes. During the second round, she recorded a spectacular 66 for a total of 137. That score not only pushed her ahead of Pankau, now her nearest competitor, by three, but set a new WAPL medallist mark by three strokes, bettering Tracy Hanson's 1991 total of 140 at Birdwood Golf Course, in Charlottesville, Va. Her 66 also tied the WAPL record for the lowest 18-hole score, set by Heather Hughes in 1992 at Haggin Oaks Golf Course, in Sacramento, Calif.

During the first two rounds of match play, McGill soundly defeated Jo Blosch, of Creve, Mo., by a score of 4 and 2, before moving easily past Debbie Williams of Ann Arbor, Mich., with a 4-and-3 victory. Meanwhile, Heidi Voorhees, McGill's teammate at the University of Southern California, and runner-up at the 1991 Women's Amateur, advanced on the other side of the bracket with a pair of 2-and-1 victories.

Amy Schmiesing, of Shoreview, Minn., dispatched Pankau by a 2-up margin to better the possibility of an all-USC final between McGill and Voorhees, who had never faced each other in match play. Never would be no longer.

Both McGill and Voorhees struggled through the semifinal round, as each needed extra holes to advance to the final match. But in the midst of steady rain, McGill took an early lead and never relinquised it, standing 2 up at the turn after sinking a 20-foot birdie putt from the front fringe of the ninth hole. She proceeded to win the next two holes, the 11th with a birdie, then traded birdies with Voorhees on the 12th to remain 4 up.

McGill captured the 13th to grab a commanding 5-up lead, then closed out Voorhees with a birdie on the 14th for a 6-and-4 victory. That margin was the second highest in WAPL history, bested only by Danielle Ammaccapane's 6-and-5 victory in 1985 over Kristie Kolacny at Flanders Valley GC, in Flanders, N.J.

A total of 899 entries were accepted.