Aronimink's Teachman takes Women's Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Chester Valley

 

   Tessa Teachman has been around the block as a professional golfer since completing her college career at LSU in 2012.

   Teachman appeared on The Golf Channel’s Big Break Myrtle Beach in 2014 and yes, it’s pretty amazing how many of the Big Breakers used that popular show as a first step in their professional careers.

   Teachman played on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s development tour now known as the Epson Tour, and worked as a teaching pro at The Quarry Golf Club in Naples, Fla.

   Teachman, who was a junior standout in the Rochester, N.Y. area, landed at Aronimink Golf Club as a teaching professional on Jeff Kiddie’s staff over the winter, but was rehabbing an injury and didn’t get out to play much competitive golf.

   But fully healthy, Teachman showed she hasn’t forgotten how to play as she claimed a three-shot victory in the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship Aug. 29^th at Chester Valley Golf Club in East Whiteland, Chester County.

   Chester Valley was once the site of a regular stop on what then was known as the Senior Tour and the over-50 set always raved about the classic layout, even though it never yielded as many low scores as many stops on the senior circuit did. Very simply, it’s a tough golf course.

   Teachman made bogeys at the fourth and ninth holes, a double bogey at 10 and a bogey at 17 before finishing with a flourish, making a birdie at the 379-yard, par-4 finishing hole for a 4-over 74. Teachman needed just 20 putts in her round while navigating the tricky Chester Valley greens.

   Jennifer Cully, a teaching pro at Honeybrook Golf Club, earned runnerup honors as she finished with a 7-over 77, three shots behind Teachman. Cully has teed it up in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2019 and 2021.

   Defending champion Joanna Coe, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, finished a shot behind Cully in third place with an 8-over 78.

   Coe was named the winner of the inaugural Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year, picking up the award at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship played a little later than originally scheduled amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 at Aronimink She was the Philadelphia Section’s Women’s Player of the Year in 2022.

   Speaking of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, Coe earned a spot in the field for next year’s edition, which tees off June 19^th at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., by finishing in a tie for fifth place in the LPGA Professionals National Championship in late July at the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course in Williamsburg, Va.

   It will be Coe’s sixth appearance in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She also qualified for a spot in the field in the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open.

   The Mays Landing, N.J. native had a lot of friends and family and, I heard, a busload of supporters from Merion, watching her play in this summer’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course, the A.W. Tillinghast classic in Springfield, N.J. Coe added a solid 3-over 74 in the second round at Baltusrol to her opening-round 77, missing the cut by three shots with her 9-over 151 total.

   Coe was in the hunt for the title in the LPGA Professionals National Championship at Kingsmill as she matched par in the second round with a 71 after opening with a 1-under 70 before closing with a 75 that left her in a tied for fifth place with a 3-over 216 total.

   Allie White of Lancaster, Ohio birdied the first hole of a playoff with Sandra Changkija of Kissimmee, Fla. to take the title after both finished with a 2-under 211 total.

   The top eight finishers at Kingsmill punched their ticket to next year’s KPMG Women’s PGA at Sahalee. Former Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier, who went home to work at the Yinglings Golf Center in Hagerstown, Md., where she learned the game growing up, just missed out on a trip to the KPMG Women’s PGA as she finished in a tie for ninth place with an 8-over 221 total.

   In the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Chester Valley, a trio of players finished in a tie for fourth place, two shots behind Coe at 10-over 80.

   That group included Brit Wedell of Green Valley Country Club, Patty Post, the director of golf programs for both the men’s and women’s teams at Delaware, and Kelly Sanderson of Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Wedell tuned up for the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship by teeing it up a couple of weeks earlier in the Partner-Pro at Stonewall, where she spent a year in the pro shop in 2022. I was looping in the group with Wedell that day and she possesses a golf swing that can only be described as pure and she can get it up and down from anywhere.

   Marjorie Jones of The Shore Club and Andrea Grier of Wilmington Country Club and sister of Ashley finished in a tie for seventh place at Chester Valley, each recording an 83.

   Rounding out the top of 10 in the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship were Victoria Petrosky of Fox Hill Country Club and Linda Nevatt of the Union League’s Liberty Hill Course as they finished in a tie for ninth place, each tallying an 84.