Twenty-five years later, Michelle McGann looks back at her U.S. Girls' Junior title won at Orchards Golf Club

The seven-time LPGA Tour event winner won the national championship at the South Hadley course in mid-August 1987.

Twenty five years?

Has a quarter century really passed since Michelle McGann was the toast of Orchards Golf Club and the junior golf world?

Before winning seven times on the LPGA Tour, the “golfer with the stylish hats” won the 1987 U.S. Girls' Junior at the Donald Ross design in South Hadley.

“I think about it all the time,” McGann said of that August week on Silverwood Terrace. “The medal they gave you was made so you could wear it and I think about it anytime someone wins any kind of USGA championship. Your name is on the trophy, it’s in (the USGA’s Golf House) Far Hills (N.J.). It’s so special.”

McGann was one of the headliners in the field, as a high school junior who won three Florida state titles.

“Michelle arrived with pretty good credentials, she had such a presence,” said Bob Bontempo, the head golf professional at Orchards GC at the time.

By week’s end, McGann was a 7-and-5 winner over Lynne Mikulas of California in the final. She had defeated Vicki Goetze of Georgia with an 8-and-6 win in the semifinals and none of her six matches reached the 17th hole.

“I really felt untouchable, that nobody was going to beat me,” McGann said. “And winning it helped me get to where I did in my career. It’s the highest point you can get as a junior, and it was pretty much the end of my amateur career.”

After graduation, she returned to Western Massachusetts to work with her teaching pro Bob Below at Longmeadow CC during the summer of 1988. She planned to play at the University of Miami, but she advanced through the LPGA Tour’s qualifying tournament at the end of the summer.

McGann won seven times, played on two U.S. Solheim Cup teams and played at the former Friendly’s Classic at Crestview Country Club in Agawam. She also returned as the guest speaker at the player’s dinner on the eve of the 1995 U.S. Girls Junior at Longmeadow CC.

She did not qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open field, when the championship was staged there in 2004.

McGann also left her mark on the LPGA Tour for her fashion of wearing hats while on the course.

“Before that, I wore a visor that week (at the Orchards) that I had from PGA National,” McGann said. “I had it signed by Payne Stewart and Peter Jacobsen and I know it brought me good luck that week.”

McGann remembered the large crowds, having her 8-year-old brother there and her caddie.

“The community got behind it like it was a major championship,” McGann said. “I still remember my caddie Dean, he was always making me laugh. You couldn’t talk to your parents, so having diabetes made it so important when I needed to eat, you are on such a timeline.”

McGann has embraced the challenges of living with Type 1 diabetes, helping raise awareness for younger generations.

“You really hope to have an impact with what you can do,” said McGann, who works with the Diabetes Research Institute. “For girls, 8, 10 years old . . . their life is not over.”

McGann, now 42, does not play competitively anymore, instead playing for “fun and for charity.”

She married two years ago and has spent the summer months helping her family run Cape Neddick (Maine) CC.

“I haven't played the Orchards since I won there . . . . it is not too far from where I am, I’d love to go back,” McGann said.