LPGA Tour 'a dream come true' for Shrewsbury's Brittany Altomare
Brittany Altomare took a red-eye home from Portland, Oregon, last Sunday night after tying for 19th in the Cambia Portland Classic. She returned home to Shrewsbury for the first time since January a bit tired, but happy about her rookie season on the LPGA Tour.
“It’s been a lot of fun and exciting,” Altomare said. “It’s where I’ve always wanted to be and I’m thrilled to be there finally and playing consistently week to week. It’s been a dream come true.”
Altomare, 25, ranks 71st on the LPGA Tour money list with $119,018. The top 80 at the end of the year will be fully exempt in 2017, the next 20 will be mostly exempt and the next 25 will be conditionally exempt. So if she continues to play well, she should play a lot on the LPGA Tour next season.
In 11 starts this season, Altomare has made nine cuts and finished in the top 20 four times.
“My game felt really good this whole year,” Altomare said. “I worked a lot last year getting ready. It was kind of a rebuilding year for me last year, but everything feels good so I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be playing as well as I am.”
The perks are starting to pile up. Titleist and FootJoy give her golf balls, shoes and gloves. Altomare receives free clubs from Ping and she’s been told if she continues to play well, Ping will pay her to use their clubs next year. She’d also like to line up a clothing endorsement.
After Altomare tied for 70th, missed the cut and finished 75th the first three weeks of June, her swing coach Justin Sheehan flew to Arkansas to work with her on her driving.
“It really helped a lot obviously,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I was spraying it, but I was hitting this kind of pushed, blocked thing.”
She rebounded nicely by finishing in the top 20 in each of the last two weeks.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself,” Altomare said, “which I think is the main thing.”
After graduating as an All-American golfer at the University of Virginia, Altomare played three seasons on the Symetra Tour and moved up to the LPGA Tour full-time in April after winning her final Symetra Tour event in Sarasota, Florida.
Other than the larger purses, the biggest difference on the LPGA Tour is the travel. On the Symetra Tour, the golfers drive to most events. On the LPGA Tour, they fly.
Altomare isn’t playing in the U.S. Women’s Open this week because she missed a playoff in a qualifier in Richmond, Virginia, by a shot, but her tie for 13th in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship two weeks ago earned her a spot in her first Women’s British Open July 28-31 in Milton Keyes, England.
Altomare didn’t hit balls this week until Friday at The Haven Country Club in Boylston. After taking this week off, Altomare will return to the LPGA Tour next week to play in the Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio. The UL International Crown the following week in Chicago will be the final LPGA Tour event in the U.S., until the Tour Championship Nov. 17-20 in Naples, Florida.
After the Women’s British Open, the LPGA Tour takes three weeks off during the Olympics, then holds two events in Canada and one in France before heading to Asia for six weeks. Those Asian events have limited fields with no cuts.
“I’m hoping if I keep playing well,” Altomare said, “I’ll get into a few of them (in Asia) because that’s been my goal since I started.”
Playing in those Asian events should help Altomare move up on the money list and earn her way into two other limited-field, no-cut Asian events early next season.
Altomare has worked with putting guru Mark Sweeney, a fellow University of Virginia graduate, for six years and it’s paying off. She ranks 11th on the LPGA Tour with an average 29.13 putts per round.
“He’s been a huge help in my game,” Altomare said, “because before I saw him, putting was not a very good part of my game at all.”
She ranks 38th in scoring average (71.263). She’s also 25th in driving accuracy, hitting 74.86 percent of fairways, but only 98th in driving distance (251.26 yards).
“You have to hit fairways, especially at my length,” Altomare said.
One of the benefits of playing well is receiving more air time during the golf telecasts. Her father Tom, her former Shrewsbury High teammates Nick Erlichman and Brett Malboeuf, and others text her when they see her on TV.
“You kind of know when you’re on TV if they’ve got the camera crew following you,” she said, “but they have TV cameras on almost every green on the back so you never really know when you’re going to be on TV.”
—Contact Bill Doyle at william.doyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15
