Anyone can teach you a swing.
I teach you a game that holds up when the stakes are real.
Pressure reveals everything.
Be ready when it does.
My professional career in golf began as a teacher before it took me to the LPGA Tour.
I've competed in major championships, the U.S. Women's Open, the LPGA Championship, and the British Open. I know what it feels like to stand over a shot with everything on the line, one ball, no second chances.
But my path to the LPGA Tour didn't begin on Tour. It began in golf instruction.
That distinction is an important part of how I coach today.
Mechanics matter. They're the foundation of great golf. That's why I use TrackMan, motor learning science, ball-flight data, and decades of coaching experience to help players build swings that work. But mechanics alone don't explain why a player can own a move on Wednesday, then lose access to it on Sunday when the pressure is real.
My job is to help players build both the swing and the performance that holds up when it matters most.
The Background
I started in this game as an assistant pro in Austin, Texas, a unique time and place that put me in proximity to some of the best instructors in the game. Chuck Cook was one of my first teaching mentors. Mike Adams followed, and I worked with him exclusively on my game for several years. I absorbed everything I could.
I was also surrounded by the UT golf team and top-rated teachers. I wanted to understand not just what good players did, but how they developed the skills necessary to reach that level.
I was encouraged by U.S. Open champion Orville Moody, who told me something I never forgot: if you want to truly understand how Tour players get where they are, become one yourself. There is no substitution for experience.
So I did.
I overhauled my entire game, qualified for the U.S. Women's Open, and went on to compete full-time on the LPGA Tour, earning Lifetime Tour Member status. I wasn't going to be a teaching pro or tour player. I was going to be both.
The process of getting there became an education in itself. There is a vast difference in the standard of play from a club teaching pro playing against peers to competing at a world level. I had to develop my skills in stages and overhaul my entire game in order to take it to that level.
For twelve years, Todd Anderson was my coach. Ranked No. 9 on Golf Digest's 50 Greatest Teachers and the 2010 PGA National Teacher of the Year, his students include FedEx Cup Champions Brandt Snedeker and Billy Horschel, Davis Love III, and Rose Zhang. I had the privilege of teaching alongside him at The Breakers in Palm Beach before joining the Tour. He had a gift for saying the same thing in many different ways until it landed, and that simplicity and clarity became something I've carried into every lesson I give. Teaching for Todd and watching him work deepened my understanding of how to communicate this game to every level of player. I wouldn't be the player or the coach I am today without him. There is no one in this game I respect more.
Teacher First. Tour Player Second.
I didn't become a golf coach because I had played on Tour. I played on Tour after I had already become a golf coach.
Before competing on the LPGA Tour, I had already begun my professional career in golf instruction. I was teaching players, studying how the game was taught, and learning from some of the best instructors and Tour players I could get around.
Then I made the decision to find out for myself what it really took to develop a game that could compete against the best players in the world.
I wasn't simply trying to become a better player. I was already a teacher, and now I was going through the process of developing my own game.
To get there, I had to develop my skills in stages and overhaul every part of my game. I learned firsthand the difference between understanding something and actually being able to do it; between making a change and owning it; and between what worked in practice and what I could still produce in competition when the pressure was real and the shot counted.
I was going through that process from both sides: as the player who had to perform and as a teacher trying to understand why things worked, why they didn't, and what I needed to change.
That experience became part of how I coached. I wasn't just coaching from the experience of having played on the LPGA Tour. I had gone through the process of developing my own game to that level with a teacher's perspective already in place.
The teacher I was before the Tour and the player I became on Tour became part of the same education.
That still affects how I coach today, how I diagnose problems, develop players, structure practice, and figure out what actually needs to be trained.
What LPGA Tour Competition Added
Playing on the LPGA Tour didn't replace what I had already learned as a teacher. It added another kind of education, having to develop my own game and then perform at a world level.
There's no faking it on Tour. You find out quickly what holds up and what doesn't.
Tour life became the filter. I learned the difference between what worked in practice and what I could actually rely on in competition when the pressure was real and the shot counted.
That changed how I looked at players as a coach. Instead of automatically assuming the swing was the problem, I learned to ask a more important question:
What is actually limiting this player's performance?
Sometimes it's the mechanics. Sometimes it's something else.
Knowing the difference is a big part of how I coach today.
The Approach
I use TrackMan technology, motor learning science, and ball flight data to give players measurable, evidence-based feedback, tailored to their individual abilities and physical makeup. This achieves a measured ball flight and enhanced ball control on the course, built on the same diagnostic tools used at the highest levels of the game.
I've been a dedicated student of my long-time mentor, renowned motor learning expert, sports psychologist, and performance coach Dr. Rick Jensen for over 33 years as a player and as a coach. He introduced me early on to the importance of understanding and studying the science and research behind human motor learning and skill acquisition. His mental skills and deliberate practice training, showing me how to take what I was working on and transfer it to the golf course, changed my development as a player and how I teach today.
My perspective didn't begin when I reached the LPGA Tour. I brought a teacher's perspective with me through the process of getting there.
Today, I bring all of that together, teaching, Tour experience, technology, motor learning, and performance training, to identify what is actually limiting a player's performance and what needs to be trained for it to transfer to the golf course.
Patricia Baxter-Johnson: Golf Coach and LPGA Tour Player
Patricia Baxter-Johnson began her professional career in golf instruction before becoming an LPGA Tour player. She was already teaching players and studying player development when she began the process of developing her own game to compete at a world level.
That experience, together with decades of coaching and continued study of motor learning, biomechanics, and technology, became part of the foundation for Tour Tested Golf Coaching.
Credentials & Affiliations
LPGA Tour Player · Lifetime Tour Member
LPGA Teaching Division, Tour Class A
Lead Instructor · Private Golf Club, Jupiter, FL · 2007–Present.
Lead Instructor · Private Golf Club, Westhampton Beach, NY · 2009–Present.
TrackMan University Master — one of the first in the U.S., one of the first women in the world
TrackMan University Certified Professional, Level 2
TrackMan University Certified Professional, Level 1
TrackMan University Certified Operator
Dr. Kwon Golf Biomechanics Certification, Level 2
Dr. Kwon Golf Biomechanics Certification, Level 1
Penn State University Biomechanics of Golf, Level 1
Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Certified — Since 2007
TPI Certified Golf Coach, Level 2
TPI Certified Golf Mechanics
Certified by Mike Adams & E.A. Tischler as a BioSwing Dynamics Instructor
Swing Catalyst Level 2 Instructor
Certified Swing Catalyst Level 1 Instructor
Certified by Dr. David Wright as a Core Symmetry Balance Fitter
Certified Edel Putter & Wedge Fitter
Dr. Rick Jensen & Henry Brunton Certified Golf Coach
Dr. Rick Jensen & Henry Brunton, Coaching 502, World Class Junior Program
Dr. Rick Jensen, Mastering The Mental Game
Dr. Rick Jensen, The Shift to Modern Golf Coaching
Proponent Group Teaching Member
Callaway Staff Professional
Harold Swash Putting Clinic Instructor
Certified Golf Fitness Trainer — PGA National
Two-Time UIL Texas State Girls Golf Champion
Junior World Championship — 11th Place
Winner of 22 Junior Golf Tournaments
Inducted into Boerne High School Hall of Honor — Golf
Inducted into Boerne High School Hall of Honor — Basketball
Acknowledgments & Recommendations
"She's got a really great set up and swing, it looks like she's a gun, when you watch her swing, this is really a good looking golfer here."
— Johnny Miller, U.S. Women's Open · NBC Broadcast
"She is a very solid player, I love everything about her. I love her golf swing and I love her putting stroke and how she keeps her putter low thru the stroke, her transition is so good."
— Donna Caponi Golf Channel Broadcast · 4-Time Major Champion · World Golf Hall of Fame
"Patricia has been a long standing student of mine since 1993; she started her career as an instructor, and her work ethic subsequently took her to the highest level competing on the LPGA Tour. Unlike teachers who analyze golf swings and prescribe unsustainable quick-fixes, Patricia understands what it takes to build golf skills, take them to the course, and shoot lower scores. Her unique experience as both a tour player and a coach is what separates her from the rest."
— Dr. Rick Jensen Sport Psychologist · Peak Performance Consultant · TPI Golf Coach Instructor
"You are a very special person with a unique gift of helping others enjoy the game of golf. When you taught with me at The Breakers in Palm Beach, your students always enjoyed the time they spent with you. They improved their mechanics but also walked away with more energy and excitement about trying to get better. Your work ethic and constant quest for improvement is contagious."
— Todd Anderson, Top-Rated Golf Instructor · Golf Digest
Ready to build a game that holds up when it counts?