By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Valerie Vaughn is a PGA of America Teaching Professional at Golf House Tennessee Learning Center in Franklin, Tennessee. She is a five-time Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional and earned the 2009 and 2010 Alabama/NW Florida PGA Section Player Development Award and the 2018 and 2020 Tennessee PGA Section Richard Eller Growth of the Game Award. She’s also earned four special awards in the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Tennessee PGA Section and is a Quarter Century PGA Member. Plus, it was announced last month that Vaughn is the recipient of the 2023 Tennessee PGA Section Patriot Award for the irreplaceable work she does with hundreds of local veterans, truly changing their lives through the game of golf.
Vaughn hails from Vestavia Hills, Alabama, and started playing golf with her mother and her grandfather when she was just seven years old. Her parents were registered pharmacists and owned their own pharmacy when Valerie was growing up, but were always very supportive of the endeavors she and her three siblings pursued. Vaughn played at Vestavia Country Club as a youth and enjoyed their Par 3 layout during her earliest years playing the game.
“We played that 9-hole course over and over and over again until I was 12 and was able to move up to the bigger course,” Vaughn remembers. “But it was that Par 3 course that helped me and my twin sister attain scholarships to play golf in college.”
Vaughn and her three siblings played junior golf in Alabama and had a lot of friends playing golf as children and teenagers. Vaughn played at Vestavia High School and attended Troy University for one year before transferring to Western Kentucky University, both under a golf scholarship. At Western Kentucky, she played golf for PGA and LPGA Professional Nancy Quarcelino, owner of the Nancy Quarcelino School of Golf which is located at Gaylord Springs Golf Links in nearby Nashville. As a highly decorated golf professional, Quarcelino is a member of the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Hall of Fame and recipient of the Tennessee PGA Section Distinguished Career Award in 2020.
“As my former golf coach, former employer and long-time friend, Nancy was instrumental in helping me be a better coach through the years,” Vaughn admits. “She was a great mentor.”
In addition to her mom and grandfather getting her into the game, and Nancy Quarcelino helping her navigate through college and her early years as a professional, Vaughn cites her first boss in the business, Vince DelBrocco, PGA, as being instrumental in her growth as a PGA of America Golf Professional. Under DelBrocco, Valerie learned the roles of golf shop merchandiser and assistant golf professional. He introduced her to the PGA of America as well, efforts that would change the path of her career going forward.
Vaughn joined the team at Golf House Tennessee Learning Center as an instructor in 2015, teaching adult clinics and private lessons, as well as PGA HOPE and many schools and junior camps. The Tennessee Golf Foundation and Tennessee PGA Section touches thousands of juniors through their school program and onsite at Golf House Tennessee Learning Center, as well as hundreds of veterans who are finding new joy in the game of golf.
The Learning Center has several indoor teaching studios with Trackman simulators and room for short-game instruction and practice. The Little Course at Conner Lane is a nine-hole Par 3 course and has an adjacent double-sided practice range that shares space with the nearby Vanderbilt Legends Club. There’s also a 20,000 sq. ft. practice green and a short game area. The facility is open to the public and is the very definition of “growing the game,” three words that have become cliche but are being demonstrated every single day by Valerie Vaughn and her colleagues in Franklin, Tennessee.
For more information on the Tennessee Golf Association, the Tennessee PGA Section and the Tennessee Golf Foundation, check out their website today!
