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Women's Golf Joe Browning

Seahawk Makes LPGA Major Tour Debut

WILMINGTON, North Carolina – UNCW women's golf alum Ashley Tait Wengert makes her LPGA Tour major debut early Thursday when she tees it up in the 2022 KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.
 
Tait Wengert competes against 155 of the best golfers in the world on Thursday through Sunday, June 23-26, 2022. The field for the $9 million event is led by defending champion Nelly Korda, with first place paying out $1.35 million.
 
tait_practiceThe tournament will be televised Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on The Golf Channel and Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 p.m. on NBC.

The KPMG Women's PGA Championship is the second-oldest major in women's golf after the U.S. Women's Open presented by ProMedica. Since 1955, the tournament has been played in 14 different states. Maryland is hosting this year's championship for a record 12th time.

The 68th edition will be contested on Congressional's Blue Course in Bethesda. The 6,831-yard layout features a par of 72. The most recent major champions in Maryland include Anna Nordqvist (2009), Yani Tseng (2008), Suzann Pettersen (2007), Se Ri Pak (2006) and Annika Sorenstam (2005).
 
Tait Wengert, who started playing golf at age five under the watchful eye of her father, Patrick, a PGA professional, began her career at Tulane before transferring to UNCW following the impact of Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans.
 
From 2006-10, Tait Wengert sparked the Seahawks to the 2007 and 2008 Colonial Athletic Association championships, runner-up honors in 2009, and a third place finish in 2010.
 
Tait Wengert was a two-time First-Team All-CAA selection (2008, 2009), two-time All-CAA Tournament pick (2008, 2009) and three-time WGCA All-Scholar Athlete (2007, 2008, 2009) honoree. She also earned Second-Team All-CAA honors in 2007 and was named the Most Outstanding Performer at the 2007 CAA Championships.
 
 "There is no question that my time in Wilmington was formative and defining," Tait Wengert wrote recently. She recorded seven top-10 finishes during her career with the Seahawks and was medalist at the 2007 CAA Women's Golf Championships in Hot Springs, Va.

"You don't just grow as a golfer in college - you also develop a lot as a person as you're trying to figure out the next step in your life."

Tait Wengert's path to the Congressional has been a roller coaster ride. After graduating in 2010 with a degree in Business (Finance), Tait Wengert qualified for the Epson Tour, playing from 2012-2017. In 2013, she appeared in 20 events and made 14 cuts, including a second-place finish at the Decatur-Forsyth Classic.

The 2009 CAA Women's Golf Scholar Athlete of the Year then stepped away from the game to work as a financial advisor before returning to the sport she loves.

She began teaching high school golf and was offered a position as an LPGA Professional and instructor at Baltimore Country Club. Tait Wengert qualified for this weekend's tournament last year and is raring to go.

"I don't have wildly high expectations going into the event," she wrote. "I want to soak it all in and can't wait to meet up with some old friends and have a great time. Having my nearly-2-year-old son Charlie see his mama sink some birdies would be a nice bonus."

In amateur play, Tait Wengert won the 2008 Colorado Women's Golf Association Stroke Play Championship and was runner-up one year later.

Tait Wengert captured first place at the 2011 Texas Women's Open and finished second at the 2011 Michigan Women's Open. She also had a pair of victories on the Grasshopper Tour in 2013.
 
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