MADEIRA, Ohio – Forty years ago, Sharon Hollis was a senior at Bay Village High School, a suburb in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sharon played on the boys’ golf team.
“We didn’t have a girls’ team back then,” she said.
That summer, in 1982, Sharon made the trip to Cincinnati to play in the Ohio Women’s Amateur tournament, which was held at Kenwood Country Club. This week, Sharon’s back at Kenwood for the LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship.
She followed one group for all 18 holes, watching her daughter, Jillian, play the same course that she played 40 years ago.
“I didn’t know that,” Jillian said after her round on Saturday. “It’s pretty special that mom’s played here before.”
Following her daughter, at a course they now have in common, stirred up some old memories.
“I remember being here. I remember the clubhouse. It all looks so different now,” Sharon said.
Golf hasn’t just taken them to the same course four decades apart. It’s taken them on a similar path through life. Sharon played in college at NC State and Ohio State. Jillian played at Georgia, and now she’s on the Epson Tour, the same tour, only a different name, that her mom played on before she met her husband, Mike, and they decided to start their family.
Jillian’s playing at Kenwood Country Club this week as a sponsor’s exemption.
But the real reason she’s playing is that her mom taught her about the game and helped her fall in love with it the same way Sharon fell in love with it.
“She taught me from a young age, and I just fell in love with the game and stuck with it,” said Jillian. “She’s pushed me a little bit but has also given me the space to fall in love with it myself.”
Sharon still plays golf. She teaches it, too. Now, though, she loves watching her daughter play.
“It’s always fun watching her play. I just hang out and stand by the trees,” Sharon laughed. “I love it. I’m just super proud. I’m so happy for her when she plays well, and I feel bad when she doesn’t.”
Jillian’s working on earning her LPGA Tour card through her performance on the Epson Tour.
So, Jillian might be back at Kenwood next year for the second edition of the Queen City Championship.
And if she is, her mom will be here, hanging out by the trees watching her.
