Bill Doyle
| Special to the Telegram & Gazette
Brittany Altomare was still regaining her strength after the birth of her son Wyatt, so she skipped the inaugural FM Championship in her home state last August, but the Shrewsbury native is looking forward to playing in the event at TPC Boston in Norton this coming week.
“I’m really excited,” she said. “I was sad to miss the first year last year, but I’m really excited to play this year and to see a bunch of family and friends and to play in front of a home crowd. So it should be fun.”
Altomare has lived in Tampa, Florida, for several years in order to work on her game year-round, but Shrewsbury remains important to her. She and her husband, Steven Stanislawzyk, both grew up there, and her father-in-law still lives there.
Wyatt, Altomare’s first child, was born on March 7, 2024. He will travel to Norton with his mother. Altomare’s father, Tom Altomare, will be on hand as well. Steven works in accounting and finance for Morgan Auto Group, which owns about 80 dealerships in Florida, and he’s trying to rework his schedule to also attend.
This week, Steven and Wyatt traveled to Canada where Altomare missed the cut in the CPKC Women’s Open in Mississauga, Ontario.
When Wyatt was born, Ping sent him a putter with his name, birth weight and birth date on it.
“I’ve been with Ping my whole career, so it was really sweet of them,” Altomare said.
Wyatt has shown some curiosity in golf already.
“He sees me practice, and he seems interested,” Altomare said, “and he likes to swing stuff around, but he’s only 17 months old. He just started walking two or three months ago.”
What is it like being a mother to Wyatt?
“Oh my God, it’s awesome,” Altomare said. “We’re so lucky. Obviously, he has his moments, but overall he’s a very happy baby. He brings Steve and I a lot of joy.”
Wyatt didn’t travel with his mother much early in the golf season.
“That made it really hard,” Altomare said. “I didn’t enjoy that at all, but this half of the year, he’s going to be out with me pretty much all the time, which is a lot better.”
According to the LPGA Tour, Altomare is one of only five mothers currently playing on the tour. The others are Stacy Lewis, Caroline Masson, Azahara Munoz and Sophia Popov. The other mothers are on maternity leave or have announced their retirements.
Altomare admitted it took her some time to adjust to returning to the LPGA Tour and not only because she was a mother for the first time. Some golfers she grew up playing against, including Marina Alex, Ally Ewing and Angela Stanford, retired at the end of 2024.
“I felt like a lot of girls that I knew retired last year,” Altomoare said. “So it was kind of weird coming back. I felt like I didn’t know as many people even though I only took a year off.”
This will be Altomare’s first LPGA Tour event in Massachusetts. She did play in an Epson Tour event at Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton in 2015 and tied for 49th.
TPC Boston is less than an hour drive from Shrewsbury.
Altomare played on the boys’ golf team at Shrewsbury High, and some of her friends from high school have told her they plan to attend the FM Championship.
Even people who don’t know her personally will root for her because she’s from Massachusetts.
“To play in front of people that support you and know you, it makes it that much more special,” she said.
Playing while pregnant for much of 2023 proved challenging for Altomare, who missed 13 cuts in her final 15 events and earned only $39,000 for the year. She didn’t play on the LPGA Tour at all last year so she could recover from giving birth and spend time with Wyatt and Steven. She did play in one Epson Tour event in July in Milford, Connecticut. Rain forced her to play her final 30 holes of the 54-hole event on the last day, and she tired. She finished tied for 69th and then took the rest of the year off.
She returned to the LPGA Tour this year in February in Thailand, and after the CPKC Women’s Open, she had made four cuts in 13 starts and earned $25,129.
Asked how she thought she had played this year, she replied, “Not great. Physically, it took a while to get back. I spent a lot of time in the gym last year. That was hard, but I felt like I came out of it really strong, which was great. But it’s been different coming back. I wish I had taken more time off, like completely off, and spent time in the gym. I felt like I rushed back a little bit.”
Altomare didn’t play in the three LPGA Tour events in Europe in July, and she spent the time working on her game with her coach.
Altomare usually ranks among the most accurate drivers on tour, but that hasn’t been the case so far in 2025.
“I’ve struggled a lot off the tee this year,” she said, “which is abnormal for me and I think that was tough, but I worked a lot this past month on it, and I feel better.”
The LPGA Tour is off the week after TPC Boston, but Altomare plans to play the following two weeks outside Cincinnati and in Rogers, Arkansas.
“I love Arkansas,” she said. “I’ve played really well in the past, and I have great housing there, so I’m really looking forward to that event.”
Altomare has stayed with the same family in Arkansas since her rookie year in 2014.
“I’ve known these people for 10-plus years, so it will be fun to bring Wyatt back with me,” she said.
Last year, her father stayed with Altomare and her husband to help look after Wyatt while she resumed training.
“Also, Wyatt got to spend time with his grandpa, which is great,” she said.
Altomare is only 34, but she said when people tell her that she’s not old, she replies, “Yeah, but I feel like it when I’m playing against 18-year-olds.”
Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2014, Altomare has earned $3.3 million, and she has finished in the top 10 17 times and in the top 25 55 times. She also compiled a 4-3-1 record in the Solheim Cup in 2019 and 2021.
Her best finish on the LPGA Tour came in a major, the 2017 Evian Championship in France. She lost in a playoff to Anna Nordqvist. Two weeks earlier, she tied for third in the Cambia Portland Classic. The year before, she won the Symetra Tour event in Sarasota, Florida. The Symetra Tour, now known as the Epson Tour, is the developmental tour of the LPGA Tour.
She has never played TPC Boston, but a couple of years ago, she hit balls off a par 3 there during an outing for one of her sponsors. She also attended the PGA Tour event there, the Deutsche Bank Championship, many years ago with her father.
“If I remember correctly, it’s a very big, open, long golf course, so I don’t know how that plays to my strengths because I definitely prefer narrow,” she said, “but it looks nice, it looks like it’s always in good shape, and I’m excited to play there. I’m excited to be in Boston, especially this time of year when the golf courses are in great shape. And it’s a great time of year to be up there.”
Megan Khang of Rockland and Westborough native Alexa Pano also are scheduled to play at TPC Boston. So three women from Massachusetts will tee off.
“I think it’s great,” Altomare said. “I think it shows that you can live anywhere and be good. I think it’s pretty cool. There’s not many of us Northeastern girls.”
Popov will also play. She grew up in Germany, but was born in Framingham and spent her childhood summers with family on Nantucket.
The 144-player field will include 36 of the top 40 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, including No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul and No. 2 Nelly Korda. Defending champion Haeran Ryu and last year’s runner-up Jin Young Ko are also scheduled to play.
The FMC Championship will be held Thursday through Sunday and offers a $4.1 million purse, the tour’s largest outside of majors and the tour championship.
Tickets are available at SeatGeek.com and start at $59 per day for general admission and $124 for weekly passes.
Would Altomare like to play on the LPGA Tour long enough for Wyatt to be able to remember it?
“I have to get my butt in gear if that is going to happen,” she said. “We’ll see. I’m just going to play it year by year. I’m playing it day by day at this point. I would like to focus on the last part of this year and see if I can get something going to make a run at keeping my card.”
Altomare figures after taking maternity leave, she’ll be eligible to play in a few more events this year and one or two at the beginning of next year. During that time, she’ll need to earn enough money to keep her playing card.
Wyatt will be rooting for her.
Ideas welcome
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—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net.