This week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship field includes a Merion Golf Club professional

Ahead of her appearance in one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world, Joanna Coe is lucky if she can find time to practice.

A club professional and the director of instruction at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Coe largely spends her days teaching and coaching golf. After the sport experienced a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Coe’s job is busier today than ever. That means that unlike many of her competitors in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., Coe didn’t have the luxury this week of hitting extra balls or nitpicking her swing.

“The time I have to prepare is absolutely zilch,” Coe said.

“I try to squeeze it in. I try to at least hit some balls every day. Sometimes, I’d get to work early, or I would leave later and play some golf after work or hit balls afterwards. … It’s difficult, but I love it, and I love juggling it every day.”

At the Women’s PGA Championship, the second of five majors this season, the 156-golfer field features eight club professionals, including Coe, a 33-year-old South Jersey native who qualified by finishing second at the 2022 LPGA Professionals National Championship.

Most of the club professionals competing this week are no strangers to elite competition — and it’s Coe’s sixth career appearance at a major. But club professionals stand out within a robust field that includes the top 15 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings because they have to balance the rigors of high-level golf with their day jobs, which include teaching, organizing tournaments, or running operations at their golf clubs.

“In Joanna’s case, teaching 10 hours or 12 hours straight, six days in a row means that you teach golf and you go home and you fall asleep,” said Bruce Chelucci, owner of the New Jersey Academy of Golf at Blue Heron Pines Golf Club and Coe’s coach since she was 10 years old. “You wake up and do it again. There’s not much energy when you’re teaching golf for practice, working on your game. It’s not like you’re going to go out to dinner and go see a movie — you would pass out at the movie theater.”

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During last month’s men’s PGA Championship, 47-year-old club professional Michael Block captivated the golf world with a top-15 finish that helped spotlight the experiences and talents of the sport’s working men and women. It’s exceedingly rare for club professionals to even make the cut at major tournaments, let alone approach the top of the leaderboard. But for Coe, the gap between her and the world’s top players doesn’t feel as wide as it may seem.

“I physically can hang out there with the women, so I feel like I can actually compete as long as I’m in the right state of mind,” Coe said. “So I would love to bring some Michael Block vibes over to Baltusrol.”

A national champion and four-time All-American at Division II Rollins College, Coe had aspirations to play full time on the LPGA Tour. After graduating from college, she joined the developmental Symetra Tour and battled for four years to earn a dream promotion to the LPGA Tour.

But by 2016, Coe was ready to reconsider her future in golf. Injuries, travel, and financial challenges were taking their toll, and Coe had grown weary of tying her happiness to the whims of her swing.

“It is a lot of pressure to have your name and a score after it and be defined by that,” Chelucci said.

Soon, Coe forged a new path in coaching. After stints teaching golf on Air Force bases and at Baltimore Country Club, she was hired in March 2022 at Merion, a pinch-me opportunity for a golf enthusiast from South Jersey to work at the renowned local course.

Even though Coe is no longer chasing the allure of the LPGA Tour, the transition has been well worth it. Coaching provides stability and balance, while still leaving room for her to stoke her competitive spirit.

“People know me as a person, as a wife, as a friend, as a sister, as a coach,” Coe said. “So I feel very fulfilled and loved, and it isn’t just conditional based on my score.

“[Playing] is not my livelihood, it’s not my everything, so it’s all just bonus at this point. I love competitive golf, I love putting myself in these types of situations. So [the Women’s PGA Championship] will be a test, and at the end of the day, it’s all good because I get to go back to Merion and do what I love every day.”

Coe also has gained a sense of purpose and clarity about her role in the sport she has been drawn to since childhood. She remembers being a high school golfer who had to play with the boys — there weren’t enough girls interested in fielding a team of their own — and hopes to use her prominent platform at Merion to bring more girls and women into the sport.

“I really have an appreciation and understanding of how intimidating the game can be, since we are at the end of the day a minority in this sport,” Coe said. “So I always just want to make it a super welcoming and encouraging environment because I just know all the amazing opportunities it can afford young women and girls.”