“PRO” FILE – TOURING PROFESSIONAL GERINA PILLER

She has yet to win on the LPGA Tour, but that milestone is likely to happen at some point, perhaps as early as 2016. Gerina Piller has made a steady rise up the ranks to a career-best 18th on the LPGA Tour money list for 2015. Piller grew up in New Mexico as Gerina Mendoza and was an outstanding athlete, excelling at both golf and volleyball, where she was an all-state player. She attended the University of Texas-El Paso where she won four tournaments her senior year, and was named the UTEP Female Athlete of the Year. She turned pro in 2007 and failed to earn her tour card the next two years. Avid golf fans may remember that she participated on Golf Channel’s “Big Break Prince Edward Island” in 2009 (she did not win), but wound up anyway gaining privileges on the Symetra Tour in 2010, the LPGA’s developmental circuit. She finished fifth on the money list and earned fully-exempt status for 2011, and has been an LPGA Tour member ever since. To date, she has three runner-up finishes and 22 top-10 finishes. She played on both the 2013 and 2015 U.S. Solheim Cup team. Piller married PGA Tour player Martin Piller in 2011, and they live in Plano, Texas.