Kay Cockerill Facts: 15 Things To Know About The Golf Channel Broadcaster

Kay Cockerill has been with the Golf Channel since its inception, but she also had a successful playing career - here are 15 things to know about her

Kay Cockerill working for the Golf Channel at the ANA Inspiration
Kay Cockerill has enjoyed a long career at the Golf Channel
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Kay Cockerill had an eye-catching amateur career before enjoying 10 years as a professional. However, for the last three decades, she has become better known for her work on the Golf Channel.

Here are 15 things to know about the American.

Kay Cockerill Facts

1. Kay Cockerill was born on 16 October 1964.

2. She began playing golf at the age of 12.

3. Cockerill won back-to-back US Women's Amateur Championships in 1986 and 1987.

4. As a non-scholarship player at UCLA, she secured six collegiate wins between 1983 and 1986, and earned All-American honors in 1985 and 1986.

5. That year, she was inducted into the Northern California Golf Association Hall of Fame.

6. Cockerill graduated in 1987 with a degree in economics.

7. She turned professional the same year, joining the LPGA Tour and also competing on the Futures Tour (now the Epson Tour), where she won the Marsh Landing Classic in 1988 – her one professional title.

8. Cockerill’s best finish in a Major came in the 1988 US Women’s Open with a T16.

9. She received the LPGA’s Budget Service Award in 1992 for her outstanding community service and dedication to golf.

10. She retired from the professional game in 1997, two years after transitioning into broadcasting at the Golf Channel’s inception. There, she became a commentator and analyst for events on the LPGA Tour and Nationwide Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour).

11. Nowadays, she is the network's on-course reporter for the LPGA Tour and college golf live tournament coverage.

Kay Cockerill working for the Golf Channel as Nelly Korda receives the trophy for her T-Mobile Match Play win

Kay Cockerill is a prominent figure in the Golf Channel's coverage of the LPGA Tour

(Image credit: Getty Images)

12. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999.

13. In 2008, Cockerill was honored by the California Golf Writers Association with the Jack Lemmon Ambassador of Golf Award.

14. In April 2022, Cockerill and her husband Danny Dann embarked on a cross-country journey in an Airstream RV, combining her broadcasting duties with traveling.

15. Cockerill sits on the board of The First Tee of San Francisco.

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Mike Hall
News Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.