Meaghan Francella is back on an lpga start sheet this week, and the 44-year-old from Philadelphia is doing it in a place that feels close to home. The former winner is among 144 pros playing for a $2 million purse at the 38th ShopRite LPGA Classic at Seaview Hotel and Golf Club in Galloway Township.
Francella is scheduled to tee off on the Bay Course at 7:20 a.m. Friday, a return to tournament golf after years spent teaching at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. She first played lpga Tour events in 2006, won once in 2007 and stepped away from touring golf in 2014, but she said she still believes she can compete. “I still know that I have a lot of good golf left in me,” she said.
The appeal of this start is not just sentimental. Francella won the 2007 Mastercard Classic by beating a field that included then-world No. 1 Annika Sorenstam, a reminder that she has already won against the best. She also said the last few weeks of preparation have left her encouraged, adding that she has put in a lot of work and feels good physically heading into Friday.
Her day job has kept her close to the game in a different way. Francella has spent the last four years as a teaching professional at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, where she has watched the tour from the other side of the ropes and tried to bring what she sees back to her students. She said, “You’re around the best players in the world, and you gotta learn something while you’re out here,” and added that she watches what the players do and tests it on the range to see whether it helps the people she teaches.
That setting also helps explain why her return lands with a little more weight than a routine sponsor exemption. The Philadelphia Cricket Club was founded in 1854, and last year it hosted the PGA’s Truist Championship, placing Francella’s teaching base inside one of the nation’s oldest clubs and connecting her work there to a bigger tournament stage. For Francella, the trip from lesson tee to lpga fairway is not a reset so much as a continuation.
The field around her reflects that range. Jennifer Kupcho, 29, is the defending ShopRite champion, while Isabella DiLisio brings a different track to the event after winning two PIAA Class 3A titles at Mount St. Joseph Academy in Flourtown. DiLisio said she had to learn how to play for fun again after once chasing the game because she wanted to, and she called it a dream to keep competing at a high level, including a U.S. women’s Mid-Am title.
DiLisio also said Francella pushes her to be the best golfer she can be, a sign of how the 44-year-old’s return stretches beyond her own scorecard. This week gives Francella a chance to prove that a player who turned pro in 2004, won on tour in 2007 and left full-time competition in 2014 can still belong among the world’s best. It also asks a simpler question that will be answered in the morning: whether a teacher who never really stopped studying the game can translate those lessons back into lpga golf.
