Who is Cheryl?

A unique combination of Teacher and player

Cheryl Anderson brings a unique combination of teaching and playing skills to Heathrow Legacy Club in Lake Mary, FL. She is currently the highest ranked woman on Golf Digest’s list of the 50 Best Teachers in America and GOLF Magazine has recognized her as one of America’s Top 100 Teachers since 2013. In 2023, she was recognized for the second time as the LPGA Professionals National Teacher of the Year (She also won in 2006).

A native of Connecticut, Cheryl taught in the Metropolitan New York area from 1992-2007 before moving to Florida to become the Director of Instruction at the Mike Bender Golf Academy in Lake Mary.

She was recognized by the Metropolitan PGA Section in 2007 as the Teacher of the Year. More recently, Anderson was named the 2025 North Florida PGA Section Teacher of the Year. This was her fourth PGA Section Teacher of the Year award.

Cheryl has taught several top 100 juniors in the country including a number one ranked junior girl whom she had taught for nearly a decade. More than 100 of her students have gone on to earn college golf scholarships. She also coached the Lake Mary Prep Girls Golf team to two state championship victories in Florida including a national record 14-under-par performance in an 18-hole event. In 2023 and 2024 she coached two different boys to Florida State High School Championships. 

She is a member of the USGA’s United States National Development Team’s Athlete Development Advisory Group and has served on the National Education Committee for both the PGA of America and the LPGA.

Cheryl was the Director of Instruction at the Mike Bender Golf Academy from 2008-2025. She enjoys working with every level of golfer from beginners to professionals, and often, all on the same day. 

Anderson also is one of the best woman teaching professional players ever. In 2004, she earned the Met PGA Section Women’s Player of the Year award for a record fifth consecutive season.

More recently she tied for 17th at the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn C.C. in Fairfield, CT on rounds of 74-76-71-72. Her 16 birdies for the week were second to only the championship’s winner Annika Sorenstam.  She has made the weekend cut in three of the four U.S. Senior Women’s Opens for which she has qualified.

Her play in 2002 was historic as she became the first women to win all three of the Metropolitan PGA women’s events in one season: The Metropolitan Women’s Open, the Met Women’s Stroke Play Championship and the Met Women’s Match Play Championship. She also was runner-up in the LPGA’s National Club Professional Championship in Southern Pines, North Carolina and in the LPGA’s Northeast Section Championship in Manassas, Virginia. 

Another professional highlight for Anderson was being named The Journal-News Suburban Golfer Magazine’s “Golfer of the Year” in 2001. Her season that year included making the cut at the LPGA Tour’s Betsy King Classic in Pennsylvania (the only teaching professional to make a cut on the LPGA Tour that season) and winning her first Metropolitan Woman’s Open.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Anderson competed on the golf team for four years, including two as team captain. Before turning professional in 1992, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Public Links Championships.

Anderson is a Class A member of both the LPGA and PGA of America. She has authored numerous instruction articles in all of the major golf publications including Golf Digest, GOLF Magazine, Met Golfer Magazine and Golf Digest Woman Magazine. Her first book Teach Yourself Visually Golf was published in 2007. She also has appeared numerous times on Golf Channel’s instruction programs including, PGA National Golf Day, Morning Drive, The Golf Fix and Swing Expedition.

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