In her grandfather's footsteps: Jillian Hollis goes from tagging along at Elyria Country Club to LPGA Tour

Some of Jillian Hollis' first memories of the game of golf involve riding in a cart at Elyria Country Club with her grandfather Paul Minnich, an 18-time club champion. Now Hollis is getting ready to make memories across the globe. Hollis, a Rocky River native, earned her LPGA tour card for the 2020 season by finishing fifth on the money list in her first full year on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA's version of the PGA's Korn Ferry Tour. "It was a very exciting year," Hollis said of her 2019 season. "I learned so much about my golf game and myself. My goal was to get better with every tournament. I was very happy with how my game progressed." With wins at the IOA Championship in Beaumont, Calif., and the Forsyth Classic in Decatur, Ill., and five top-five finishes, Hollis ended 2019 with $98,044 in earnings and, more importantly, full exempt status for the 2020 LPGA season. "I had some goals written down at the beginning of the season and obviously that was one of them," Hollis said. "I always set my goals pretty high. I worked very hard to achieve my goals. It's been a process. I've seen my game getting better." Although Hollis was only 7 when her grandfather died, she still feels like he's a part of her success. "My grandpa was a huge influence on me," she said. "Unfortunately, he passed away when I was pretty young before I really fell in love with the game. I have pictures of him taking me around in the golf cart and taking me on the driving range. The way he gave my mom the love of the game, you can tell he was a huge influence on her life and my mom showed the same eagerness to pass on that love of golf to me. So in that way he was always with me. "I wish he was still here to see what I'm doing now," Hollis added. "My mom always tells me he's one of my golfing angels that walks down the fairway with with me. It's very comforting to think about that." Jillian's mother, Sharon, had an outstanding golf career of her own as a member of Ohio State's 1988 Big Ten championship team and spending four years on the Futures Tour, the precursor of the Symetra Tour, from 1988-91. "Jillian is more like my dad than I ever was," Sharon Hollis said. "She has always been very focused. When she was younger she would have done nothing but play golf if I had let her." In recent years, Sharon has been focused on helping Jillian achieve her dreams, traveling with her to tournaments across the country and serving as her coach and caddie as needed. Although Jillian now has her own swing coach and caddie, Sharon is still helping her daughter manager her career. One of their favorite memories on the golf course dates back to 2015 when they both competed in The Cleveland Women's Golf Association district championship at Elyria Country Club, just days before Jillian headed off to the University of Georgia, where she would become a three-time All-American. "When the CWGA tournament came to Elyria I told Jillian it would be great for her to play in it," Sharon Hollis said. "I knew she was going to have to play match play in college so I thought it would be a good experience for her. "Jillian said, 'I'll play in it, Mom, if you do, too.' I hadn't played competitive golf in 20 years and I told her I didn't know if I'd make it through the second day but I finally agreed to play." Turns out they both made it to the 36-hole final, which Jillian won 8 and 7. "I lot of people came out to watch the finals that day," Sharon Hollis said. "It was special for both of us because that was where we both grew up playing." Although Jillian has played some of the top courses in the country and will now have the chance to compete on four continents on the LPGA Tour, Elyria Country Club is still one of her favorites. "I really love Elyria, that's where my grandpa played, my mom played there and that's where I was able to grow up playing in the early part of my life," Hollis said. "I have a lot of fond memories there of learning the game and learning how to play." Hollis will kick off her 2020 season next month in Boca Raton, Fla., before heading off to Australia and then on the tour's first Asian swing. She'll make it back to Ohio in July for the Marathon LPGA Classic in Sylvania. If Hollis gets hot in 2020 like she did in 2019, there's still a chance she could qualify for the United States Solheim Cup team. The Solheim Cup, the women's version of the Ryder Cup, will be played at Inverness Country Club in Toledo in September. "It's so cool some of the places we get to go to," Hollis said. "I'm really excited to get to experience different cultures." Hollis played her first professional tournament, the Canadian Open, when she was still a high school student in 2014. She qualified for her first U.S. Open in 2018, making the cut at Shoal Creek in Alabama less than a month after her college career ended. She plans to stick with what has gotten her this far as she prepares to compete against the world's top golfers on a weekly basis. "I'm just going to take the same skills I've refined my whole life and apply them to the LPGA," she said. "If I can just play my game, I know my game is good enough to compete at the highest level. I think the mistake I've seen a lot of girls make is they think they need to change things. It's like whatever you've done to get to the LPGA is pretty good, you didn't get here by accident. The goal should just be to try to get better every day, not to change what got you here." Contact Todd Shapiro at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.