Joanna Coe, a Mays Landing, N.J. native who is a teaching
professional at Baltimore Country Club, and Penn State senior Jackie Rogowicz,
who starred scholastically at Pennsbury, earned spots in the main draw for this
week’s ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer in a Monday qualifying round at
the Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club’s classic Bay Course.
The 28-year-old Coe, a collegiate standout at Rollins
College in Florida who spent some time on the Symetra Tour, overcame an early
double bogey to shoot a 3-under 68 and finish first among the 37 players trying
to grab the two spots available in the field for the LPGA’s annual visit to the
Jersey Shore in Galloway Township, across the bay from Atlantic City.
Rogowicz, who advanced out of a pre-qualifying event for
amateur players, earned the second spot in the ShopRite LPGA Classic by
finishing a shot behind Coe at 2-under 69.
I looped for Coe in a one-day Pro-Partner event at Stonewall
last fall. JoCoe – a nickname she likes enough to put on her golf balls – can
flat-out play. She carded a 3-over 73 in her first look at the Old Course that,
if not for a couple of cruel lip-outs, should have been 1-over or even
even-par.
It will be the third time Coe will tee it up in the
ShopRite, but the first time since 2011 when she was making her professional
debut. She is very familiar with the Bay Course layout.
Coe will make her debut in a major championship later this
month when she plays in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf
Club in Kildeer, Ill. outside of Chicago. To that end, Coe had her longtime
coach, Bruce Chelucci, on the bag in Monday’s qualifier.
“I haven’t been playing a ton of golf, but I’ve been working
extremely hard on my game for the last month,” Coe told David Weinberg of The Press
of Atlantic City following Monday’s round. “I was really struggling to get
off the tee, but Bruce came down to Baltimore, we spent five hours on the
practice range and we figured it out.”
Coe, a two-time Omega Middle Atlantic Section PGA Women's Player of the Year, stumbled briefly with a double bogey at the second, but
played solid golf the rest of the way. A birdie at the sixth and an eagle at
the ninth enabled her to make the turn at 1-under and she added birdies at 12
and at the last to finish at 3-under.
Rogowicz advanced out of Sunday’s amateur qualifier with an
80 – she told The Press’ Weinberg the
wind was blowing 40 mph on the links course – and made the most of the
opportunity with the 69 that put her into the ShopRite LPGA Championship.
North Carolina junior Brynn Walker, a two-time PIAA Class
AAA champion at Radnor, and Emily Gimpel, a former Mount St. Joseph standout
who played collegiately at Maryland, were also in the field Monday. I couldn’t
dig up the results of those who failed to grab one of the top two spots.
Walker qualified for the ShopRite LPGA Classic the week
before her graduation at Radnor two years ago. Gimpel teed it up in the Symetra
Tour’s Valley Forge Invitational at Raven’s Claw Golf Club two weeks ago, but
failed to make the cut.
Rogowicz was joined by three of her Penn State teammates in
Sunday’s amateur pre-qualifying round as senior Cara Basso, a Villa Maria
Academy product, junior Madelein Herr, who starred scholastically at Council
Rock North, and another junior, Jersey girl Megan McLean, a Voorhees High
product, also teed it up.
That makes four of the six players who represented the
Nittany Lions in the Big Ten Championship at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville,
Ohio. Basso capped a strong junior campaign by finishing tied for fourth in the
Big Ten Championship and earning an invitation to compete in the NCAA’s Madison
Regional as an individual.
A couple of former District One standouts who are juniors on
the Seton Hall women’s team also gave it a shot in Sunday’s amateur
pre-qualifying event. They were Maddie Sager, a runnerup to Walker in the 2015
PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Owen J. Roberts, and former
Coatesville standout Sammie Staudt.
The 54-hole ShopRite LPGA Classic, with a total purse of
$1.75 million, tees off Friday.
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