Tait-Wengert qualifies for LPGA major
Alum/Coach Ashley Tait-Wengert will be in the 2022 KPMG PGA Championship field.
It has been a dream for her since she can remember.
Oddly, it didn’t come until after she got married, had her first child, moved across the country and didn’t really have that much time to get ready.
However, Ashley Tait-Wengert did it – she recently qualified for one of the LPGA Tour’s four major championships. The 2005 Mullen graduate, former head girls coach and current assistant made the field for the 2022 KMPG Women’s PGA at historical Congressional Country Club in Potomac, Md.
“It’s a big deal and I’m excited,” Tait-Wengert said.
Now a teaching professional assistant at Baltimore Country Club, Tait-Wengert shot a 2-over-par 215 at the Kinsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va. She went 71-73-71 to finish among the top eight.
As she knows, golf can be a funny game, so “I’m a little surprised,” she said … “I’ve been working a lot and not preparing as much as I would have liked, but I did hit it well well enough to score. I left a lot of putts out there, but I played pretty relaxed.”
As well, Tait-Wengert said “I looked at the field and a lot of these players were ones I’ve played against n my career, so I felt confident.”
On the the very difficult golf chase since she can remember, Tait-Wengert, after becoming the second Colorado schoolgirl to earn three medalists, was to play at Tulane, but Hurricane Katrina forced a switch to North Carolina-Wilmington. She has dabbled on the Symetra Tour for years.
“I was her coach as a player at Mullen and it always was a goal of hers, and it finally has come together for her,” Mustangs head coach Kate Walker said. “It’s really cool that after having a baby, focusing on her teaching and finding a different way to accomplish it, that is just wonderful..”
Tait-Wengert said she’d like to stay involved with Mullen golf – Mustangs girls finished second as a team in 4A in the recent Season D and also had the state runner-up -- as she intends to keep her house here.
Walker realizes what her presence can mean to impressionable schoolgirl players.
“Definitely, yeah, it’s wonderful for our girls to be able to see that perhaps it’s possible for them down the road,” Walker said, “and working closely with a coach who has that experience, it’s an amazing opportunity for the girls to have that with a coach and mentor.”
Tait-Wengert said she’d like to stay involved with Mustangs golf, but will have to balance her job, her family and her first real step toward playing regularly as a pro.
It is, as she knows too well, the game of golf.
“I’ll have a lot of time to play and prepare,” she said. “I want to go in there, make the cut, make some money and compete against those girls. I know a lot of the names, I’ve played against them on the Symetra Tour and 100 percent I have a chance.”
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