Gerina Piller to play in Diamond Resorts Invitational before taking time off to have baby

Steve DiMeglio | USA TODAY

A funny thing happened to Gerina Piller on her way to taking a sabbatical from the LPGA tour in 2018 to have her first child.

She played a lot of golf.

“I’ve played more this December than any December since I’ve turned pro,” said the three-time member of the Solheim Cup team, who teed it up in benefits for Hurricane Harvey rebuilding efforts, the North Texas PGA and the College Golf Fellowship.

She’s playing more in January.

In addition to playing in Morgan Pressel’s annual charity event, Piller, 32, is one of four LPGA players in the field Jan. 12-14 for the Diamond Resorts Invitational on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour. Joining her are LPGA stars Brittany Lang, Brittany Lincicome and Brooke Henderson.

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Among the 27 Champions Tour players in the field are defending champion Woody Austin and John Daly. Among 52 sports and celebrity stars playing are Larry the Cable Guy, Alfonso Ribeiro, Marcus Allen, Roger Clemens, Brian Urlacher, Michael Waltrip, defending celebrity champion Mark Mulder and the Atlanta Braves pitching trio of Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.

The tournament, at the Tranquilo Golf Club in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, features separate purses totaling $1.2 million – LPGA and Champions Tour players for $750,000, the celebrities for $500,000.

A Modified Stableford scoring format will be used.

“I want to stay active and see what this belly of mine will do to my swing,” said Piller, whose baby boy is due May 3. “I’ve lost a ton of distance. And there are some really bad shots that kind of sneak up now and then that I have no explanation for. My equilibrium is a little off. I picture a better shot in my mind or my body doing something and then I swing and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s not what I was expecting.’”

Piller said it was a “no-brainer” to play in the tournament because it raises money for the Florida Hospital for Children, she gets to play against men for the first time since her college days, and the former Little League player will get to talk the ears off of fellow sports stars, especially the baseball stars.

“I want to pick their brain,” said Piller, who grew up wanting to be the first woman to play Major League Baseball.

And then Piller will put the golf clubs away. While she won’t play on the LPGA tour this year, retirement is not in her plans. Golf, however, will still be very much a part of her life as she will be on the PGA Tour road with her husband, Martin Piller, who begins his year next week at the Sony Open in Hawaii and will play most of the West Coast swing.

“Ever since we’ve known each other we’ve been on a mini-tour, or the PGA Tour, the Web.com Tour, the LPGA tour, and we’ve both been traveling our separate ways so I’m looking forward to hanging out with him,” said Piller. The two will celebrate their seventh anniversary Jan. 8. “I’ll travel with him as much as I can until my doctor – or the baby – tells me I can’t.”

While a golf course will be in front of her most of her upcoming days, the LPGA will always be in the back of her mind. Piller knows this year will be an emotional rollercoaster.

“I’ve played sports for as long as I can remember and this will be the first year I won’t be playing a sport this year,” said Piller, who played baseball, volleyball, soccer, and was on several track and field teams. She took up golf when she was 15.

“It’s going to be interesting and hard. But at the same time we’re welcoming our first child and that is very special to us. I’m definitely going to miss golf. I already do. The work you put in, the preparation, we get to go to pretty great places, seeing my friends, the competition.

“I’m going to miss that.”

Hopefully for not too long.

“I definitely plan on coming back. I still love competing, I still love everything about golf,” Piller said. “Being a mom has always been a dream of mine, but the LPGA is great and you can be a mom and still play.

“ … It’s hard to say what’s going to happen in the future. But there is no rule that says you can’t keep playing. That’s my plan. I would love to be back in 2019.”