Cheryl Anderson

Cheryl Anderson brings a unique combination of teaching and playing skills to the Mike Bender Golf Academy in Lake Mary, FL. She is a two-time LPGA National Teacher of the Year (2006 and 2023) and is currently the highest rated woman on Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America. GOLF Magazine also has recognized her as one of America’s Top 100 Teachers since 2013.
A native of Connecticut, Cheryl taught in the Metropolitan New York area from 1992- 2007. She was recognized by the Metropolitan PGA Section in 2007 as the Teacher of the Year and was one of the first instructors in the world to be certified as a golf coach by the Certified Golf Coaches Association. More recently, Anderson was named the 2020 and 2021 North Florida PGA Section Teacher of the Year. 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. 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.  Cheryl has been Director of Instruction at the Mike Bender Golf Academy since 2008. 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 17 th  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 qualified for four Senior Women’s Opens in total, making the weekend cut in three of them. 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 multiple times on Golf Channel’s instruction programs including The Golf Fix and Swing Expedition.

To find out what Cheryl can do to elevate your game, book a New Student Assessment with her by calling 407-321-0444.