That’s what Mays Landing resident Joanna Coe faces Friday when she steps to the first tee on the Bay Course at Seaview Resort in Galloway Township to make her professional debut in the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
“It’s going to be nerve-wracking,” Coe said.
Friends and family will be in the gallery. Seaview is located just a few minutes from where Coe grew up, but being close to home won’t make the day any easier or harder.
“I think I’d be really nervous no matter where I am,” she said.
Coe’s first swing as a professional is a moment the 21-year-old has spent years striving for.
A 2007 Oakcrest High School graduate, she was one of the region’s top scholastic golfers and soccer players. She then went to Rollins College in Florida, where she won the NCAA Division II national championship as a freshman in 2008.
Coe played the Ladies Professional Golf Association ShopRite Classic last year as an amateur, shooting 75-81 to miss the cut.
This year is different. Golf is now Coe’s job. If she makes the cut this week and plays in the final round on Sunday, she will earn at least $2,000 for three days’ work.
“It’s a lot different playing golf for money than it is playing for pride or just your school,” Coe said. “I don’t know how it feels to (stand) over a putt and have it be for thousands of dollars.”
Always competing
Coe is the youngest of Mike and Kathleen Coe’s three daughters. Coe’s older sisters — Monica, 26, and Kristen, 25 — also played golf. Monica played for Rutgers University. But by the time Joanna was in high school she was competitive with her older sister, despite their four-and-a-half-year age difference.
Joanna attended the ShopRite LPGA Classic every year; she and her mom volunteered as hole marshals. She met former LPGA great Annika Sorenstam and got an autographed golf ball from her.
But golf was not her only focus.
Coe grew up a sports fan. She’s passionate about the Phillies and Eagles. As a young child, Coe played baseball with the neighborhood boys, often competing against them in home run derbys in her backyard.
A poster of U.S. soccer standout Mia Hamm was on the wall in the basement of her home when she was growing up. She’s still Oakcrest’s career girls soccer scoring leader.
And then there’s her ping-pong prowess. The Coes had a table in the basement and Joanna beat everybody she went up against.
“She’s always been the happy-go-lucky, real energetic kid,” Monica Coe said. “She’d always be hanging out with her friends, playing sports, didn’t know what day of the week it was.”
Rollins women’s golf coach Julie Garner said she knew from the moment Coe arrived at Rollins that she would be successful.
“She has this inner confidence that you can’t help but see,” Garner said.
Coe made an impression on and off the course at Rollins. She organized a winter formal for athletes and was president of the student athlete advisory committee. She majored in political science and graduated earlier this month with honors. She achieved a 4.0 grade-point average this spring in her final semester.
“I think she had a blast here,” Garner said, “and her good golf now is really a byproduct of that.”
One of Coe’s best qualities is her competitiveness. She showed it at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in Rockville, Md. She shot a 78 in the first round of the 36-hole event, but came back with a 71 to finish tied for seventh and grab one of eight qualifying spots for the major championship. It will be held from July 7-10 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“I call that the Jersey fire she has,” Garner said.
That competitiveness also showed through in campus ping-pong tournaments. Coe battled Rollins college president Lewis Duncan for the school’s top ranking. Garner said Coe never beat Duncan.
“That was one of the great failings of her college career,” Garner said with a laugh.
Going pro
Coe began to think of turning professional when she reached the semifinals of the 2009 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. LPGA star Michelle Wie won that event in 2003.
“That’s when I knew I could hit high-pressure shots,” Coe said.
The odds of becoming a professional golfer — as they are for every sport — are slim. LPGA events feature about 150 players from all around the world.
Few LPGA golfers are from New Jersey. Diana D’Alessio, who is from Morris County, played on the tour from 2000 until last year. Angela Oh, from Maple Shade, Burlington County, is a tour rookie this year and will also play in the ShopRite Classic.
Most LPGA golfers are from foreign countries or warm weather states such as Florida, Texas and California. Some LPGA players are teen prodigies, such as 16-year-old Alexis Thompson, who will also play this week’s Classic.
Coe received a preview of LPGA life from Rollins assistant coach Naree Song, a former touring pro.
Song boosted Coe’s confidence. Song told her that she needs to improve some skills, but that she has the talent to make it as a professional.
“Coming from her mouth, that was very special,” Coe said.
Coe’s strength is her power. She can hit her driver, woods and long irons far and straight.
But professionals make their money with their short game. Wedge shots into greens must land in specific spots to create birdie opportunities. Putts of 20 feet or less must consistently roll into the cup.
“She’s still working on that part of it,” Garner said of Coe’s short game. “But if she can get that the type of confidence from 100 yards and in that she has with a 3-wood in the fairway, she’s really going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
The ShopRite Classic starts an exciting summer for Coe. She will play in a Canadian Women’s Tour event in Montreal from June 13-15 and then compete in the U.S. Women’s Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado from July 7-10. She will then begin the process of trying to qualify for the LPGA Tour at the tour’s July qualifying school.
Coe realizes how special the next few weeks will be and how much they will mean to her future.
“I know these moments may never happen again,” she said. “I’m going to live every moment to the fullest.”
Contact Michael McGarry:
609-272-7185
Source http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/
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