Joanna Coe balances the majors and motherhood. Next up, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

South Jersey native Joanna Coe is no stranger to competing in the majors.

The club professional and director of instruction at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore has been competing professionally for over a decade. On Thursday, she’ll be making her sixth major appearance when she travels to Frisco, Texas, to compete in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

However, there is one major difference in Coe’s life since the last time she competed at the tournament in 2023. On June 14, 2024, Coe and her husband welcomed their first child, Jenny.

“She’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Coe said. “She always has a big smile, and it’s cool to see how she’s developing and becoming a little person under our watch. So [motherhood has] been incredible.”

Coe aspired to play on tour while growing up in Mays Landing. She was a four-time All-American at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., where she won individual and team Division II golf championships. She played on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour formerly known as the Symetra Tour, after college.

Last September — three months after her daughter’s birth — Coe won the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Union League Golf Club at Torresdale, becoming the only two-time champion of the event.

She says her training hasn’t differed much since her pregnancy.

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“I’d say recovery has been pretty standard for any woman after having a baby, but I felt a little off-balance and the sequencing isn’t right,” Coe said. “It was just trying to figure out my body parts again and just trying to get my strength back. I’m close to being 100% now.”

After four years of basing her well-being on her scores as a professional player, she decided to move to the other side of the industry — teaching.

“I wanted a little bit more happiness and stability in my life,” Coe said. “I became a PGA Class A professional and started at Baltimore Country Club, where I taught golf and ran a junior program. After six years there learning the ropes, they recruited me at Merion.”

That was in 2022. Now, even though she’ll teach for up to 12 hours a day, she loves getting to coach young golfers. She also can compete as a club professional when she wants to.

Last weekend, Coe competed in the ShopRite LPGA Classic in Galloway, N.J. Though she carded a 10-over 152 across two rounds and missed the cut, it was a way to get back on the course before the major. Coe says it was special being near her hometown, where her passion for golf started.

She teed off at Seaview’s Bay Course, which she played in high school, junior golf, and professionally. She says the course has been good to her, but also “terrible at times.”

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“That’s just kind of a reflection of golf and life,” Coe said. “You have ups and downs. It was so cool, I had a lot of family and friends come out, high school coaches, people I haven’t seen in years, who came to support.”

Coe took lessons at Blue Heron Pines Golf Club in Egg Harbor City and played on the boys’ golf team at Oakcrest High School because it did not offer a girls’ team. However, the experience opened her eyes to the lack of support and resources for women’s golf, she said.

It inspired her to advocate for getting more girls involved in the sport.

“There’s just not enough girls playing golf,” Coe said. “Whether that’s a matter of access or girls at a certain age getting too frustrated because there’s not enough friends — they’re competing with a bunch of boys.”

She acknowledged that golf is heading in a positive direction for women, thanks to recreational golfing and places like Topgolf and Five Iron Golf as a form of entertainment, while offering exposure to the sport.

“From there, if we can hook them when they’re young, then they’re going to play college golf, then perhaps they join the industry or just enjoy golf in their life with their family,” Coe said. “They’re kind of set for forever if they start young, so it’s just so important to get that foundation, and that’s definitely one of my goals.”

Coe is hoping to share the sport with her daughter, who — at only a year old — has seen a lot of golf already.

“She’s watched Mommy and Daddy hit a lot of golf balls and play holes, so I’m hoping, through osmosis and exposure, she will love the game,” Coe said. “Of course, I’m not going to be a helicopter parent, but I hope that she loves it as much as I do.”