Headline: Former Bay State Amateurs- Megan Khang, Brittany Altomare, Josh Salah & Rob Oppenheim - Enjoy Success This Past Weekend on the Professional Circuit
For Immediate Release: February 1, 2016
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From top: Megan Khang, Josh Salah, Brittany Altomare & Rob Oppenheim |
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Norton, MA — The future of golf is clearly very bright for former Bay State amateurs looking to make an imprint on the professional golf world.
This past weekend a quartet of competitors who grew up playing on MGA courses and in local events enjoyed the national (and even international!) spotlight and captured the hearts and minds of so many along the way.
Here is a snapshot (with links for more information and coverage) of four Bay State natives who made this past weekend one to enjoy and remember.
The reigning Anne Marie Tobin WGAM Player of the Year made the most of her LPGA rookie season debut by finishing T11 at the Pure Silk Bahamas Classic. The 18-year-old Khang turned pro in December after advancing through LPGA Qualifying School to earn her 2016 LPGA Tour card.
In what was her first official event of the LPGA season, Khang put herself in a position to make a run at winning her debut as a tour member as she was just two shots off the overall lead heading into the fourth and final round.
On Sunday afternoon, she was still within two shots of the lead on the back nine but couldn’t get a birdie chance to fall over the final 10 holes. She made bogey on the last hole to close with a 2-under-par 71 to tie for 11th. Read More
Brittany Altomare also made headlines this past weekend. The Shrewsbury native and University of Virginia All-American stormed up the Pure Silk Bahamas Classic leaderboard on Sunday by firing a 6-under par 30 on the front nine.
Altomare, who finished 22nd on the 2015 Symetra Tour Money List, earned $13,849.00 with a T21 finish. Altomare has played on the Symetra Tour since graduating from Virginia in 2013, but she shot 68 in the qualifier to enter her first LPGA Tour event. Read More
Josh Salah of Gloucester and Bass Rocks Golf Club fired a score of 6-under 66 on Saturday for a four-round total of 17-under 271 to win the PGM CCM Rahman Putra Championship in Malaysia. It was Salah’s first career Asian Development Tour win in his second year on the tour. His victory put him third on the ADT Order of Merit. Salah, who is 24 years old, won the tournament by one stroke over Shunya Takeyasu of Japan.
Salah graduated from Sacred Heart in 2013 where he was a four-time All-NEC selection, earning NEC Golfer of the Year honors in 2012 and Rookie of the Year honors in 2010. He was also a key member of Sacred Heart's 2011 NEC Championship squad. Prior to Sacred Heart, Salah was a standout golfer and hockey player at Gloucester High School. Read More
Oppenheim, the 2009 Massachusetts Open Champion, got off to a fast start at the Farmers Insurance Open held at Torrey Pines. Raised on the North Shore and a member at Indian Ridge Country Club and Long Meadow Golf Club while growing up, Oppenheim played at Division II Rollins College (FL), spent about eight seasons on circuits such as the Hooters Tour in the southeast before finally getting his Web.com card in 2010. He played the next six years there, not getting a top-3 finish until he won the Air Capital Classic last year.
On Thursday, Oppenheim posted a score of 5-under par round during the tournament's opening round. Oppenheim nearly got to 6-under and a share of the lead, but his birdie putt on No. 9, his final hole of the day, lipped out and he settled for par. When he walked off the ninth green, he was tied for second, one shot off the lead. His name shined bright on the first page of the leaderboard which was televised across the world and was spread across social media. Read More
