Loving the game for the game
An interview with Lobo Women's Golf Coach Jill Trujillo
April 29, 2008
Who taught you how to play golf?
My dad. I was 5 years old.
Where did you grow up?
Silver City, New Mexico.
When did you first play on the course, and what did you think of it?
I was probably 15. I thought it was probably the hardest course I would ever play—with all the ups and downs.
Why is it so hard?
It has a lot of elevation changes. It's a long walk. When you're a kid, you don't ride on carts; you've got to carry your bag. I come from a small town, with a shorter course, smaller greens. I came out here and thought, "Wow! This place is huge!"
What do you like about golf? Why did you start playing it seriously?
We went out as a family all the time. My parents got me in our Sun Country junior section back in the early 70s. I started playing competitively when I was a very young kid. I started playing nine holes, and I really liked it.
When did you realize you're really good?
I think, maybe, last year! When you're a little kid, you play for the fun. We played nine holes; when you're older you play 18. You get a hotdog and coke. If you're one of the better ones they give you a medal.
I don't know that I realized I was pretty good until I was about 15. Then I was a big fish in a small pond. Then I came here to college and there was a lot more competition, and I was the proverbial small fish in the big pond. Through the years of my college playing, I got better, and I learned a lot more
Who was your coach?
John Speary.
What do you remember about him?
He was always pretty positive with me. He saw the potential of the local kids. Allowing me on the team was a big step for us both. There were two of us locally on the UNM team at that time, and then one more was added. There were quite a few good kids in New Mexico. We had multi-sport athletes. Now there are so many opportunities for girls to do so many things. Women's golf has exploded since the early 90s. There are a lot of girls involved, but not so many who carry on into college. The choices are good for women in general, but it makes the golf pool smaller and smaller.
Your players are from all over the place!
Four of the seven are from out of the country: two from Sweden, one from England, one from Peru. Golf is a global sport. We have the opportunity with recruiting dollars here to go global, to get the best players.
How do you do that? How do you find them?
Some find us. We have contacts in different countries. We have a really good relationship with the Swedish coach and team. Both our current players from Sweden have been on Swedish national team; of course, they send back good reports.
There are so many opportunities for girls to play collegiate golf. There are division 1, 2, and 3 schools; at most of them you can get a scholarship. There are close to 300 Division 1 schools that have golf. Once you get out of the top 25-50 junior golfers in the US, you've got to go looking internationally. Sometimes we get a good top 25 girl, a US kid, and hang onto her. We're a top 25 school, so once we start getting out of that range, we want to look for the best players. Anymore it's hard to look at a kid and say, "She has potential; I see something in the future." You have to be developed, and ready to play now.
How do you attract players here?
We have one of the top college courses in the United States. That's a big deal. A lot of the girls coming in want to play on a good course. And, we have our own practice facility. It's not unusual but it's a bonus. If you go to a big school like UCLA, USC, even Pepperdine, they don't have their own home course to practice on. They have to get in their car and travel quite a ways. Even at the University of Washington, they have their own course, but it's 45 minutes away from campus. So it would be like driving to Santa Fe to practice.
Our weather is a big plus. We usually bring in recruits in late August and early September. Of course that's the best weather. Once they get here, they realize we're not desert; we're high desert. We have forest, trees, river, mountains. It's not excruciatingly hot, like Phoenix.