National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship a Fitting Ending to an Eventful Year for Megan Leineweber, PGA

Megan Leineweber is the PGA First Assistant Professional at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Maryland. While many of us are anticipating the holiday season, Megan is gearing up for the 2023 National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship after earning one of four spots in this summer’s Middle Atlantic PGA Section Assistants Stroke Play Championship.

Megan was born in Maryland and grew up playing many different sports. But it wasn't until her family moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina, that she picked up golf. 

“My dad got me involved in a Saturday Par 3 league and it was pretty apparent that I could hit a driver, thanks to my softball background,” Megan explains. “Hitting the golf ball far was how I fell in love with the game.”

She took to the game from there and was determined to make golf her primary sport. She played four years of high school golf, winning a state championship as a junior and co-captaining her team during her senior year. She’d go on to play at Radford University on a golf scholarship as she paved her way to a career in the game.

She spent three years on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour now known as the Epson Tour, from 2012 to 2014. Megan realized that she wanted to be around the game and she enjoyed teaching. 

She spent two years at Blacksburg Country Club in Virginia and moved north to Stonewall Links in the Philadelphia PGA Section after meeting PGA Head Professional Ryan Lagergren during a member's golf trip. While working seasonally at Indian Ridge Country Club in Palm Desert, California, Megan was offered an assistant professional role at Stonewall. She split her time between Palm Desert and Elverson, PA for the next four years and headed back to Maryland to take on a player development role at TPC Potomac at Avenel. 

After attaining her PGA Membership last spring, Megan says she’s maintained her passion for competition while also teaching and handling her many other responsibilities as 1st Assistant at TPC. In fact, when it came down to five competitors vying for the last two qualifying spots at her section’s Assistant’s Championship this summer, she birdied the first playoff hole to secure her place in the 2023 National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie next week. 

As she makes her final preparations, she says her goal is to treat the tournament like she would any other competition. Having never played the course before, Megan played a practice round at the Wanamaker Course at PGA Golf Club a few weeks ago. She wants to make the cut and says she’s up to the challenge.

Like many PGA of America Golf Professionals, the majority of her practice comes from playing, and she’s played more competitive golf over the past two years than at any point since leaving the tour almost a decade ago. Unfortunately, she can’t beat balls on the range all day to prepare (as if her busy schedule would allow that anyway) due to an ACL injury she sustained last year. 

We’ll be watching the event next week and our eyes will be on Megan and the few other women PGA of America Golf Professionals in the field. We wish all the competitors well, of course, and look forward to them making us proud.