Tessa Teachman | Aronimink Golf Club

Host Nathan Rarick introduces The Teacher and the Pro and interviews Tessa Teachman, an assistant golf professional at Aronimink Golf Club. She shares her path from junior golf to LSU to playing professionally before becoming a PGA Class A Professional.

Tessa shares advice for aspiring PGA Professionals and outlines her wide-ranging responsibilities at Aronimink Golf Club. She also discusses the preparations for hosting the 2026 PGA Championship, including which holes to watch and her winner prediction. 

Nathan then goes into his Fairway Rapid Fire segment, where Tessa has to quickly answer questions about her preferences for golf movies, snacks and more.

The Teacher and the Pro is a Fairway to Green podcast. You can see all episodes at www.fairwaytogreen.com.

Transcript

Nathan Rarick 0:00

Welcome to the Teacher and the Pro, where we dive into PJ professionals' journeys and the paths they've chosen within the golf industry. I'm Nathan Rarick, an elementary P teacher and golf writer for Fayerta Green, an equitable sports media company. Joining us this episode is Tessa Teachman, an assistant golf professional at Eronomic Golf Club. Tessa shares about her journey to becoming a PJ professional and shares valuable insight into Eronymic as it gets ready to host the 2026 PJ Championship next week. Thank you for joining us today.

Tessa Teachman 0:30

Happy to be here and excited.

Nathan Rarick 0:33

Now, kind of the whole point of this podcast is kind of learn the day-to-day life and what it entails being a PJ pro. And before we get into all that, can you just tell me what got you started in the game of golf? Was it a family member? Was it watching a tournament live or what was it?

Tessa Teachman 0:48

So I've I've been involved with golf my entire life. My my dad played collegiate golf at LSU. The story goes, he started me very early when I was about three years old and just kind of took off from there. Started taking lessons. And my first golf professional was a PGA professional. And that led down a line of more PGA professionals that have helped me throughout my playing career and now into my my own PGA career. But my dad started me. We did it was something we did together. I played a lot of golf competitively as a junior and then collegiate as well as at LSU and then eventually turned professional. So my route to becoming a PGA professional is maybe a little bit different than some others, but I've always been around the game of golf and very, very lucky that my dad instilled that it is a game to have fun with. And he made sure that I loved it before we went further with it. And that's really, I think, why I still love being around it every single day.

From Pro Golfer to Golf Pro

Nathan Rarick 1:44

Yeah, that's great. I mean, I feel like everyone I I talked to, it's some family member, it got him into it. I mean, it's such a good game. I teach elementary PE. So I teach my first and second graders it, and then I used to play with my grandpa growing up. So I think just one of those games that everyone in the family can enjoy. And now, so you play collegiate at LSU, and then as you mentioned, you played professionally. When did you realize that you want to become a PGA professional? Was it after your playing days? Was it during your playing days? When kind of was that thought in your brain, like, oh, I could do this after I'm done playing.

PGA Class A Professional Path

Tessa Teachman 2:18

All right, so I knew I always wanted to play golf and be a professional golfer. That's why I made my decision to go play at LSU. I wanted to pursue a playing career after I graduated. And I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to do that for several years. I was lucky to be surrounded by PGA professionals. Like I said, my instructors and just people I interacted with, I knew the profession was there. And I was very, very lucky that I got to play in a lot of beautiful golf courses. But I truly didn't think about becoming a PGA professional until, let's say, I retired from playing professionally. A back injury kind of led to what I will call an early retirement. And that left me kind of wondering what I wanted to do. I I knew I loved the game of golf. I wasn't ready to step away from being around it on the daily basis. And so I used some of those connections I had by meeting some of these wonderful people. And the connection and network of PGA professionals is so tight that I reached out to a friend. He reached out to a friend. And next thing I knew, I had a job being a golf professional, working at a country club. And then I learned quickly that the next route to keep progressing in my in that job was to become a PGA class A profession. So I I quickly learned the ropes of how to start achieving that.

Nathan Rarick 3:42

Now, did you, I know there are there are schools, I think there's like 16 PGA universities that have the PGA pro school. Did you go through that route or were you one of those that took the classes themselves and did that way instead?

Tessa Teachman 3:54

Yeah, I went the let's call it self-study route. So there are, I believe, 16 PGM accredited universities, Penn State, Methodist. There's a there's a slew of them. Yeah. But LSU did not have that, nor did I think that was the route I wanted to go at that point in time, if they had. So I ended up doing self-study. Ironically, when all this started happening, it was right around 2020. So we all know what happened. Yeah. So I ended up doing most of my education virtually. Traditionally, there are three stages to be to earn your class A classification through the self-study program. You end up completing a portfolio, which is pretty lengthy. They say it's about 50 to 60 hours worth of information. Oh wow. And then you also attend seminar. And that seminar is four to five days day long in a classroom, going over a lot of those materials and things you'll run into as a professional. So I ended up completing all three stages and three parts of my portfolio in about two years, which is pretty quick. Yeah. But I was very fortunate I could do it all virtually. I was exempt through there's a what's called a PAT, a playing ability test. So they PG of America wants all of their golf professionals to be able to play to a certain level. You don't have to be great, but you have to be able to manage a golf ball around the golf course. And due to my playing experience previously, I was exempt from having to take the PAT.

Nathan Rarick 5:22

Oh, okay. That's amazing.

Tessa Teachman 5:23

So that was a nice little bonus I didn't have to do while I was playing. They used some of my tournament spores. But yeah, it was it was a really cool experience, even virtually. You got to meet a lot of other people on the same track and the same path as you. I even had some people that play professionally as well that I knew that were on the same path. And it was very eye-opening the amount of work that needed to go into getting that that title and those three letters after your name. But I'm very, very proud I did it. I'm very happy to be in that that small realm of golf professionals.

Advice for Aspiring PGA Professionals

Nathan Rarick 5:56

Yeah, I mean, I I remember, I think it was I was reading an article on golf digests probably a month ago, and these two friends bought a golf course down, I want to say South Carolina, and the one passed the the player attribute test, and the other friend, I think it the article is about how it took him 13 times to do it. And I was like, man, you really must love the game of golf and want to be this PGA professional so bad that you're gonna take this test 30 times. And he finally got in. There's kind of part of the this podcast was like, I want to hear more stories like that. And yeah, take being able to do it yourself. Like, again, I'm a teacher, and I went back, I did my master's right away because I told Ever and Romner, like, if I take any break, I'm never going back to school. So let alone have to self-study for two years to get it. And I mean, I guess there's no better time than during the pandemic, but yeah, that I I couldn't imagine doing two more years of of schooling and seminars and and all that. But if you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring PJ professional, what would it be?

Tessa Teachman 7:00

My advice would really be to just be as open-minded as possible, be creative, keep a notepad, keep ideas running, talk to people. We're such a small network. There's no original ideas per se, but get to know as many people as you can, remember names, things like that. Just help propel you in this industry so, so well and so much further and faster. It's a tough industry, as you alluded to. It's it's a lot of customer service. You have to be a jack of all trades in some senses, depending on where you end up working. But day to day, you could tackle a million different things, and you have to be, you know, I'm I'm probably an overachiever, but you try to be good at all of them to provide the best service as possible. And so when I went through my education, the way they end up splitting it in self into self-study is you can go an operations route, you can go a teaching and coaching route, and then you can go more into a overall view route. So I I elected to go teaching and coaching. That's always been a passion. That's what I started doing when I first jumped into this realm. Teaching came kind of naturally. And I thought I'm like, man, I want to be a director of instruction and this is it. And I'm gonna go teach all the lessons and run all the programs. And I did a large portion of that. But the more I started talking to people and the more I started getting to know other people, I learned there's so many other routes that you could go. And I have that specialization in teaching and coaching, which I use often, but it it led me to meeting people that have kind of directed me down a different path. And I've learned a lot more about myself in that sense that I like just like helping people, whether it's with a golf swing or helping people try to advance in their own careers. So that piece of advice again, going back to talk to as many people as you can, learn as many names as you can, and therefore they start to learn your name. I think it just broadens your network and your horizons. And I eventually now want to direct my sights towards being a head professional that still can teach, but can kind of manage people and create really great teams to work with.

A Day in the Life at Aronimink Golf Club

Nathan Rarick 9:11

Yeah, I mean, I think this kind of leads into my next questions. Again, from what I know as a PGA professional, they wear many hats and they could be giving lessons and then all of a sudden they're in the club shop or they're creating the tournament for the the local at their tournament, a club. And like, what is again, you're saying you're an overachiever, like what is a a day in the life of your life look like? Like, how often are you teaching? Like, are you only teaching on Tuesday, Thursday, and other days they're meant for other things? And on top of that, like, can you play golf? Like, do you have time if you want to go play golf with some friends or just kind of work on your game yourself?

Tessa Teachman 9:51

Yeah, you're you're kind of spot on, you're hitting all of it. I'm very lucky where I work at Aronomic. We have a phenomenal team. I have a fantastic boss, and we have really, really strong support roles. So, a day in our life, we all have our focuses. So this year and and last year, my main two focuses or are not just two focuses, but my main focuses are I work with the Ninehole Ladies Association. I help run our men's tournaments, I help in merchandising, I help with our junior golf programs, I run all the ladies' programming for instruction, we do club fittings, we we you know help members make tea times and we predict the weather sometimes. It's it's a slew of of responsibilities. I never thought I would have this depth that I would go through every day. But to sit down and actually think about how many different directions and tasks that I try to achieve in a day is is a little bit mind-numbing. I manage our outside operations team, so I'm scheduling, I'm making sure people are on task. It's it's endless.

Nathan Rarick 11:00

Yeah.

Tessa Teachman 11:01

But because of all of that, we all can cover and help where needed. So that allows me to go teach when someone requests for a lesson. It allows me to say yes to members that want to go play golf on a Saturday afternoon. As long as my tasks are covered and as long as we have coverage in the golf shop, I am free to go play. And I love that my bots really encourages all of us to have a golf club in our hand at least once a day, whether you're hitting golf balls, practicing, going and playing, doing a fitting, teaching a lesson, anything you can do to get a golf club in your hand and hitting a golf ball is a really huge goal of our team. And we try to hold to that pretty well. Now, we can always say I want to play more golf, but who doesn't? Yeah. But another perk of being a PJ member here in the Philadelphia section, we have a really strong competitive playing section. So once the weather turns, we have events almost weekly, one-day events where you can go play for a purse, or you can just go play the network and have fun and play golf. But we do, if you are more on that competitive side, we have a really great competitive section that a lot of our guys have played on tour as well and continue to strive to play in championships. So you can kind of get whatever level you want out of it. And and there's opportunities to play as often as as you want to make time for.

Staff Structure at Aronimink

Nathan Rarick 12:25

Nice. Now, you're obviously at one of the nicer golf clubs in Philadelphia. What does your team look like? How many golf professionals are there at your club?

Tessa Teachman 12:35

So, our structure, we have a head professional. My head professional's name is Jeff Kitty. He is phenomenal, like I said. He has a strong passion for kind of mentoring and leading his assistants to become head pros as well. So a huge perk of working for him. But he's very firm and fair. He he lets us try things and we go out and we do them and he gives us feedback. So we're under a head professional. And then there's three full-time assistants. I am one of them. We'll bring in two more seasonal assistants over the summer, and we actually will have three interns with us over the summer as well. So, all in all, we're about nine or 10 in the golf shop that are golf professionals. We have a merchandiser as well as a director of instruction. So we've got a large team. We're a very busy golf club as golf is busy everywhere. It is it is booming for sure. So of the the 10 to 12 of us, we're we're all busy and we all have our specific roles to make the make make it all work. I'd say pretty typical though, from what I I know from other clubs, even larger clubs have even larger staffs, just kind of depends on on how they operate and their their operating budgets, but it's takes a village to make the day work.

Nathan Rarick 13:52

Yeah, no, I mean from what I yeah, I mean, there's always something happening again. Like you said, there's whether here at my local course, there's always different leagues, different nights, or someone's teaching, or oh, that I need to run this player. So, and especially at a big club like where you're at, I mean, I can only imagine how many members and what you have to do and all the people you have to do with. Now, what is one thing that you wish you knew before becoming a PGA professional?

Tessa Teachman 14:21

Oh, I don't know anything. Honestly, I'm learning so much every day. I've been, let's say, a PGA professional for almost eight years now, which I consider myself a baby in the grand scheme of things. But I mean, I'm learning something new every single day, and I think that's what makes it so fun. You know, maybe I wish I knew the hours were so long on certain things, but in the end, those sometimes are the most rewarding days. Those long days are usually you're booked up with a a ton of lessons or you're running a member guest, and just the amount of fun and joy people have coming to play golf and be at their home course or visit a friend is is super rewarding. So maybe just a little heads up on we're gonna work a lot, but we're also gonna have a really good time doing it. When we pull it off, it's it's always very satisfying. So it's it's it's a very cool profession.

Preparing Aronimink for the 2026 PGA Championship

Nathan Rarick 15:20

Yeah. I mean, from what I always hear and read, it's that's the one thing that I always hear is that the hours that you put in as a PGA professional are some of the wireless hours in golf. And I'm sure those hour hours aren't getting any shorter. I mean, you guys are hosting a major championship here in two months. You're hosting the PGA championship. How exciting is that to be able to showcase the golf course where you work at to a national and international audience here in a couple months?

Tessa Teachman 15:52

We're all very excited. We've had PJ Championship staff on site for almost two years now. Wow. So it has been a long time coming, and it's it's we're excited it's almost here. The cool thing right now is we saw all the changes to the golf course made last year. So any extra tea boxes and any you know, fairway narrowing, that all happened last year. So we actually got to kind of see that in the works and play that last fall. But right now, the eye-opening part is every day I drive into work and it's a beautiful drive-in. We have this long driveway with these beautiful trees that overhang, and our clubhouse is just it's it's special. It's one of my favorite drives in. It makes me excited every day. But right now, you can see where all the infrastructure is going in for merchandise tents, hospitality seats, the grandstand. So it feels so much more real to see it start coming to life. I was away from work for a few days with a golf trip for our ladies, and I came back on the other day and I drove in and I just remember looking up and around, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is massive. So this is the first professional event I will be a PGA professional for or a club that's hosting. I've been to plenty, I've never understood the inner workings or or all the things that happen on the back end. But and our club has hosted PGA tournaments before as well as a PGA championship back in 1962. But this is the first one in a while, and on this scale, I think everyone that I've talked to that has experienced some or all, they're like, this is big time. This is this is gonna be massive. So I don't know where all the people are gonna go, but I know they have a plan, and it's it's pretty dang impressive to see it all start to come to real life. So I'm I'm excited for the week to get here. We haven't been given our tasks just yet.

Nathan Rarick 17:46

Oh, I was just gonna ask that.

Tessa Teachman 17:47

Yeah, the golf staff's kind of just hanging tight for right now. They'll require a lot of volunteers. Traditionally, a lot of PGA professionals will work the range, so they'll be in charge of sorting and putting name tags and clearing the range out. I've also heard maybe a little rumor that we'll be escorting some of the practice round groups to different places on TBD on that. We're we're still waiting for marching orders, but it's definitely there's a buzz and people are excited.

Key Holes to Watch During the PGA Championship

Nathan Rarick 18:18

Yeah, no, I mean, it's been like you said, you guys have hosted PGA tour events before. It's been a couple years. What what are there specific holes that you like on this course that like maybe a fan like myself like should pay attention to? Is there like one or two holes you think that will stand out during this major championship?

Tessa Teachman 18:38

Yeah, it'll be interesting. You know, we all have our kind of like ideas of what's gonna happen for the championship, but I I think the back nine in particular will play harder than the front. Our last three holes, four, four to three, three or four holes are probably the most challenging coming in. So I think it is, and I'm hoping it's a close contest where that really makes a difference. One of my favorite holes just on the golf course itself is hole number 11. It's a par four that goes up the hill, it's beautifully lined by bunkers, and it's a hard hole for our membership. We'll see how the the professionals take take care of it, but I'm excited to see some shots on that hole. And then we've got a great two-hole stretch on the the front nine, seven and eight. It's a it's a quirky par four dog leg right, and then a long par three down the hill over water. So I'm excited to watch for those stretches. It's a phenomenal Donald Ross golf course, old school northeast golf. So traditionally, our defense are the greens and the rough. And so we're hoping for the weather to take a good turn here and and start getting that grass going. Our agronomy team is phenomenal. They'll they'll they'll do the best they can to make it as challenging as possible. And I'll be very excited to see golf played on a Donald Ross golf course. It's I think it was cool last year. The PJ Tour came to Philly cricket and his championship, and a lot of the guys were like, man, we wish we played more Northeast golf. It's it's just it's it's it's unique, it's it's the heart of the game, I think. But they don't get to experience very often. So I'm hoping and excited to see their reactions to eronomy.

Nathan Rarick 20:25

Yeah, I mean, I think we saw Brian Rolette talk about it kind of at a state of the unit just that they need to come to bigger than bigger markets like Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago. Philly Cricket Club was great last year. I am excited to see how it plays out for you guys' major. Now, it before we get to the final segment here, I have to ask, do you have a prediction? What do you think the score will be like? I mean, I guess it all depends on weather. I know Philadelphia is probably in the same kind of drowsy, crappy weather that New York's in right now. So it's just kind of starting to turn spring. So hopefully it gets drier here, and the course is, I'm sure, in good shape now, but gets in even better shape over the next two months before you guys tee it off there.

Tessa Teachman 21:10

Yeah, I I definitely think the weather will play a huge factor, not only in preparing the course, but the week of playing as well. I think the last event they had here again, PJ BMW championship, it ended up raining the entire week. So we're we're keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't happen. But the weather will definitely determine a lot of the course setup. And so with that being said, actually I my my hunch and who I'm gonna be pulling for is actually yesterday's winner at the players' championship, Cam Young.

Nathan Rarick 21:41

Okay.

Fairway Rapid Fire

Tessa Teachman 21:42

He kind of Northeast boy grew up playing similar golf courses. That, you know, greens are the big defense. He can bomb it. So I I don't think that length will be an issue at all. But that's kind of my early guess, my early prediction right now. But I mean, heck, it's and it's a major championship. They they will they will make it what they want it to be in terms of course setup and it's up to the guys to to go fire so I think scores will be low maybe a little lower than a traditional major championship but who knows I could be I could be totally wrong yeah I mean have some teeth when it when it wants to and if you get a little off off kilter so okay yeah I'm I'm all for the the carnage and the pros looking like amateur golfers like Oakmont last year was just like yep give me more of this yeah no I I think I'm really excited again Northeast is again being from New York I'm I'm biased like you that I think there's great golf year that doesn't really get showcased. I know you get the the New York US opens at Shinnecock and in Beth Page and and all that but I think like you said like Philadelphia like Philly Cricket Club was great last year. I'm sure there are other golf courses in Philadelphia like yours and other ones that could easily host some type of PG tour event. So I I am excited for two months now this last segment we like to call our fairway rapid fire question. So it's just five or six questions about different golf things and you just got to give me your quickest answer off the top of your head.

Nathan Rarick 23:18

Okay.

Tessa Teachman 23:18

All right so first one dream course to play dream course to play Augusta National yep that's so far two for two with having guests and saying that yep that's gonna be the popular answer I'm sure especially as a PGA professional you guys probably play some really cool courses and just to be able to kind of play the granddaddy of them all would be pretty cool. The next one favorite encore snack oh I'm a big peanut butter and jelly occasionally peanut butter and bacon if you can find it peanut butter and bacon okay that's that's a new one okay those are there's some good turn stands that have a peanut butter and bacon okay good to know all right early morning tea time or sunset round oh that's so hard if it's a tournament round I'd rather it be early morning. If I'm going out to have fun and play with friends I want to be that dusk sunset round perfect yeah no I it all depends on yeah what I'm doing the rest of the day if I have nothing planned then maybe I'll do the sunset and if I have things to do give me out there at 630 645 favorite club in your bag favorite club is now my putter okay I was custom fit for it years ago I've had it in my bag for almost 12 years now. Wow and it it's my favorite I I feel so good holding it and I just want to hold putts with it so that's all right who would be in your dream foresome to play golf with this one's always a hard one yeah it changes so often for me I think for me I'm I'm more of a family oriented foresome now. Dream foresome my my fiance is a really great golfer he's also a PGA professional here in Philadelphia I'm picking him I like him a lot I'm picking my dad just because he started me with the game and I would love to be able to play with him. He hung it up years ago when I started playing and I think that it would be so cool to just spend four hours with him on the golf course from a different perspective now. And so that leaves my last and my foursome and gosh I think it would probably go to probably go into Tiger Woods.

Nathan Rarick 25:31

I mean he changed the game I want Peak Tiger though I want 9099 to 2010 Tiger yeah I'm sure yeah I'm sure your fiance and dad would love to play around so it all three of you would be ecstatic so that's it's gonna be yeah probably everyone's choice and probably he'd be in mine too so it's not that surprising and then your favorite golf movie favorite golf movie I go back and forth it is happy Gilmore for a good laugh absolutely I like Tin Cup though too I'm I'm just kind of like I like comedy and golf's hard enough you gotta laugh about it as much as you can yeah definitely happy Gilmore the first one. The second one this was disappointing. But yeah I mean I it's hard to root against either of those two choices. Tessa thank you for doing this I know like you said you're probably really busy with getting prepared for the PGA here in a couple weeks but I really do appreciate taking some time every day to talk to us and I think some of the the listeners and aspiring PGA pros will definitely take some good things that you said from this.

Tessa Teachman 26:42

Yeah we're always here to help so that's one of the missions of the PGA is grow the game and and and have people fall in love with it. So thanks for the chat and hope we get to do it again.

Nathan Rarick 26:53

Yeah thank you and have fun at the PGA championship