Next on the Tee: LPGA Tour pro Meaghan Francella discusses playing career, teaching
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On this episode of Next on the Tee, host Chris Mascaro is joined by Tom Patri and a trio of Next on the Tee rookies — LPGA Tour pro and a Top 100 Teacher to Watch for 2024-25, Meaghan Francella; one of golf’s most decorated amateur players, Steve Scott; and the director of golf at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Brendan Walsh.
Patri, former Met PGA Teacher of the Year, recaps where we aren’t with the PIF/PGA Tour merger, Keith Pelley’s resignation as CEO of the DP World Tour, Martin Slumber’s resignation from the R&A, plus a playing lesson to help you fix your slice.
Francella won back-to-back New York junior championships in the late ‘90s. She went on to win the Conference USA title at Memphis before transferring to the North Carolina and winning the ACC Championship there. We hear those stories plus her remarkable debut on the LPGA Tour where she beat Annika Sorenstam in a playoff to win the MasterCard Classic in just her second start on Tour.
Scott was another accomplished junior player having won the 1992, ’93 and ’94 South Florida Junior Championship. He was an All-American at Florida, winning three individual titles his senior season. He famously battled Tiger Woods in the 1996 U.S. Amateur, taking a 5-up lead into the last 18 holes of their match. If he hadn’t reminded Woods to move his ball mark back on the 16th green, he would have won the match 3&2. Instead, he did the right thing and went on to lose the match on the 38th hole. The golf gods gave him great karma as he went on to a great amateur career, including two appearances in the Walker Cup and now as a top broadcast analyst for ESPN and PGA Tour Live.
Walsh is is the 12th of 15 children to a father who is a Philadelphia golf legend and a mother who is clearly a saint. He played college golf at the College of Wooster just outside of Akron, Ohio. He won the 1996 Connecticut Open. During his tenure at The Country Club, he hosted the 1999 Ryder Cup, 2013 U.S. Amateur, and the 2022 U.S. Open. Hear all those stories and more during our conversation.
Listen: Next on the Tee with Chris Mascaro
