BANDON, OREGON | Since transitioning from touring pro to full-time golf instructor in 2016, Joanna Coe has become one of the PGA of America’s top playing professionals.
The director of instruction at the renowned Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, Coe earned 10 consecutive women’s player-of-the-year awards across the Middle Atlantic and Philadelphia PGA sections between 2016 and 2025. She also won the inaugural Omega Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year Award in 2019.
Amid accolades for her play, however, Coe has found fulfillment in helping her students.
“The most rewarding part is getting a text message saying they broke 100 for the first time, they set a personal best or they won a club championship,” Coe said. “Even if they’re just having fun with their family. It’s really rewarding to help people fall in love with the game.”
This week, Coe was one of nine women in the 312-player PGA Professional Championship field at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. Although she missed the 36-hole cut, she both recognizes and embraces her role in inspiring the next generations of women golfers.
“It’s always fun to represent the women of the PGA,” Coe said. “Less than like 4 percent of the PGA of America are women so I take that with a lot of pride. I’m also a resource now for the younger ones and want to inspire more women to get into the industry.”
Coe grew up as a dual-sport athlete, playing both golf and soccer through high school. She was a talented soccer player, and set the goals and assists record at Oakcrest High School in New Jersey. But during her senior year, she tore her right ACL and meniscus, an injury that prompted her to focus on golf.
While Coe was learning how to improve her golf swing, she was also learning how to teach. She worked with Bruce Chelucci, founder of the New Jersey Academy of Golf and current women’s golf coach at Stockton University.
“He essentially taught me how to teach while teaching me,” Coe said. “I met him when I was 11 years old and we had this unspoken deal where I would help him with a clinic or I would help him around the range or whatever he needed me to do. He never charged me a dime for any lessons.”
“As she got older, we spent so much time together that I would just explain what I was always doing with everybody’s game,” Chelucci said. “We would study people’s golf swings and I would explain why I thought they were good.”
Coe earned a scholarship to Rollins College, where she won nine times, including the 2008 NCAA Division II National Championship individual title. She turned pro in 2012 and played on what is now the Epson Tour, where she made the cut in 27 of 53 starts with four top-10s from 2012-2015.
“The highs are too high almost,” Coe said of her time as a touring pro. “It’s a great adrenaline rush. It’s a dopamine hit when you play well in front of people and you win some money or you win some trophies. But the lows are very low because it can be extremely lonely.”
“I just really matured as a person and as a player so I don’t regret it, but it was extremely difficult. I’m a lot happier now.” – Joanna Coe
Coe says she got tired of the travel, and the roughly $33,000 she earned from her play in those four seasons was not enough to sustain herself. She also sustained another ACL tear in May 2014.
“It’s hard because as an athlete you’re just so used to moving and pushing hard,” Coe said. “The harder you try the better results you get. But when you’re injured, you have to wait and rest and recover. That was not a fun time in my life.”
Despite ultimately stepping away from playing for a living, Coe doesn’t regret her time on the Epson Tour.
“I learned a lot about myself,” Coe said. “I grew as a young woman and as a human. I learned how to travel. I learned how to budget for myself. I just really matured as a person and as a player so I don’t regret it, but it was extremely difficult. I’m a lot happier now.”
Chelucci, who keeps in touch with Coe and has caddied for her, believes she made a wise choice.
“I believe Joanna is a tour player to this day,” he said. “But she is where she’s supposed to be. I think she’s serving golf better as an advocate for women’s golf in general.”
After deciding to step away, there was little question what she was going to do next. She’d been teaching golf lessons since graduating college in 2011, and in 2015 she began teaching at overseas golf clinics for U.S. Air Force personnel.
“I didn’t want to waste my knowledge of the golf swing,” Coe said.
While Coe briefly explored college coaching, she took a junior golf director job at Baltimore Country Club in 2016 and fell in love with the work. In 2017, she earned her PGA of America Class A membership as a certified teaching professional.
In 2020, she became director of instruction at Baltimore Country Club and moved to Merion Golf Club in 2022 with the same title.
Coe is proud to be a woman in the instructing space. Her title and Class A membership show all the work she’s put in.
“You have to do things the right way,” Coe said. “You’re not going to get the job because you’re a woman, just because you’re a unicorn. You have to have it with merit. You have to know what you’re doing. And you need to work extremely hard. You gotta earn it like anyone else.”
“If positions of leadership look a bit more like the consumer, that’s a good thing.” – Joanna Coe
And Coe hopes more women join her in the future. She looks to women who play golf at any level: amateur, collegiate or professionally.
“You don’t want to lose them,” Coe said. “I think a lot of them get burnt out and they’re done with the game. But they’re experts and we need to convert them to [teaching] professionals because the game is rapidly growing especially among youth, women and millennials. If positions of leadership look a bit more like the consumer, that’s a good thing.”
Coe says she’s proud of all she’s accomplished in the game and the accolades she’s received, but at the end of the day it’s about providing for her family and growing the game.
“I think that people see my passion for the game daily, which is what I want to spread and the legacy I want to leave,” Coe said. “I want people to say she did things the right way, she competed hard and she grew the game and was super passionate about it.”
Top: Joanna Coe was one of nine women in the PGA Professional Championship field at Bandon Dunes. Photo: Darren Carroll, Courtesy PGA of America
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