Allie Knight Brings Teaching Perspective Into Sixth Straight KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Allie Knight is taking a different approach into her sixth consecutive KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Speed training? Not this time.

After experiencing the demands of Sahalee Country Club — one of the narrowest, tree-lined courses in the country — during the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Knight realized she was prioritizing the wrong part of her game.

“I was like doing all this speed training, and I’m going into Sahalee trying to swing as fast as I can on the tightest course they probably play on,” Knight chuckled.
Instead, she’s simply trusting what got her there: staying committed to her game.

“Just play my game and I’ll be fine,” Knight said.

This week, Knight steps away from the lesson tee at Fairways and Greens Golf Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Instead, she’ll tee it up Thursday at Hazeltine National in Minnesota as one of eight PGA Corebridge professionals in the field.

Knight earned her spot with a victory at the 2026 PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship.

“I can compete if I’m on my A game,” Knight said. “I’ve put in years of work since I was five or six years old.”

Knight has been a PGA/LPGA instructor at Fairways and Greens since 2020 — the same facility where she began playing.

After a successful college career at Middle Tennessee State, Knight knew that if playing professionally didn’t come to fruition, she wanted to remain in the industry.

She eventually lost her Epson Tour status and took a job at Tennessee National Golf Club in 2018. Like many PGA professionals, she started out washing carts.

There, she discovered teaching was her passion. Knight entered the PGA PGM program, completed it in two years, and earned Class A status in 2020.

That same year, she found her way back to Fairways and Greens.

“Growing up, going there to get lessons from my instructor, then to now being there and giving lessons and giving back to people that way — it’s pretty neat to just kind of grow up there and still be at the same place,” Knight said.

Knight, 32, feels her game has never been stronger. Teaching has given her a schedule that allows her to practice and compete while continuing to grow as both a player and instructor.

“My game is so much better than what it was then, not only from my actual swing, but even just mentally,” she said. “You get older, you get more mature.”

Her students each week — from beginners to experienced players — serve as constant reminders of how difficult the game can be.

“Sometimes I go back and have to swing left-handed to remind myself this is not easy,” Knight said. “It’s just a totally different perspective from when I started teaching to now. You start to see the swing differently.”

Knight will have longtime friend Chris Watson on the bag at Hazeltine for the second straight year. He has caddied at the Tour level and is an experienced club fitter.

She has been preparing by playing Hazeltine on the simulator at Fairways and Greens.

“I would like to play some good, solid golf that I know I’m capable of,” Knight said.

Knight often takes a step back to appreciate her path, journaling each morning about what she’s grateful for.

She also understands what the PGA of America has meant in her career.

“It means the world to just have that logo. To be wearing it and to represent the people that everyone looks up to,” Knight said. “That’s what PGA pros are: the people that run the golf shops, run the golf courses and help people with their golf game.”