A Trio of Golfers Advance to Stage Two
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – University of Miami women’s golf senior Dewi Weber, graduate Delfina Acosta and Luiza Altmann continued to march towards their professional golf dreams on Sunday as they each advanced to Stage Two of the LPGA Tour Qualifying School at Mission Hills Country Club.
Weber, who earlier this spring earned 2017 All-ACC honors and WGCA Second Team honors, carded a three-over 291, finishing in the top-100, while Acosta tied for 20th with a four round score of 287 and Altmann tied for 94th.
During the four-round qualifier, Weber posted 13 birdies, with her strongest performance taking place on the Shadow Ridge course. The Groningen, Netherlands, native finished four-under with a 68, collecting six birdies on the second day of competition.
“Dewi, who is in her last semester of school, is an amazing player,” head coach Patti Rizzo said. “She always has so much going on. She flew immediately after this event, to the World Amateur [Team Championships] in Ireland, and then will return to Miami for our events [starting Sept. 15] and two more stages of Q-School. Hopefully, she will pace herself well this semester and get through everything she needs to get through, and I hope that she accomplishes her ultimate goal, and gets her card.”
Acosta tallied 10 birdies in the first three days and entered the final day carding four-under. The Nicanor Otamendi, Argentina, native concluded play with 11 birdies.
“Delfy matured a lot from freshman year to senior year, as I saw her go through some real mental growth spurts,” Rizzo said. “She always just had one goal: to be a pro golfer. So she wound up finding a sponsor over the summer and I think that really took some pressure off of her. So when she got to Q-School she was raring to go. And she really played well. I am happy for her.”
Altmann opened up play finishing one-under par at the Shadow Ridge course, collecting a pair of birdies. Overall, she carded nine birdies over the four-day qualifier, hitting six-over.
“Luiza only played for us one semester, but I thought she had a tremendous amount of talent,” Patti said. “She preferred to practice golf every day then to go to school. She is very dedicated and a really sweet girl, I wish her all the best.”
Each of the first three rounds of qualifying school were played on a different course; Palmer, Dinah Shore and Shadow Ridge, which presented a different challenge for every round to test each individual’s skill set. The fourth and final round returned to the Dinah Shore Course, after cuts were made.
With Acosta, Altmann and Weber finishing in the top-100, the trio advances to the second round of qualifying school in Venice, Fla., at Plantation Golf and Country Club. The second stage will take place from Oct. 13-Oct. 18, with approximately the top 15-25 players (ties included) advancing to the Q-Series.
The Q-Series is the third and final stage and is scheduled from Oct. 22-Nov. 3 at Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, N.C. A minimum of the top-45 players and ties will receive LPGA membership for 2019.
“It is great, the last three or four years we have had so many girls going pro. Rika [Park] went pro in Japan, Letti [Leticia Ras-Anderica] went pro in China and Europe and [Daniela] Darquea played on the Symetra Tour and now she is almost a full-time member of the LPGA since she finished fifth [Marathon Classic] a few weeks ago,” Patti said. “And then we have Delfy and Luiza, and now we have Dewi. And also one of our very first inherited recruits Jennifer Hirano, plays in the Japanese tour. So really, it is nice, because since we have been here we have had so many, one way or another, make it as a pro. I think that shows that we have had some really talented players. Because it is not easy, even to make it on a foreign tour it is still very competitive.”
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