Rising Star

The life of a professional golfer on the LPGA Tour may well be filled with airport courtesy cars, sumptuous clubhouse buffets and the chance to play the most challenging courses for thousands of dollars in prize money.

Maybe that’s why Kris Tamulis, the only Naples native now playing full time on the women’s tour, says she’s having the time of her life, even if she still hasn’t earned enough to move out of her parents’ Royal Harbor home. "Naples is a great place to live," says Tamulis, 26. "But it’s a little out of reality for me to have my own place right now. Ideally, I’d love to live somewhere less busy and less expensive, but my parents have been great about it, and I couldn’t ask for a better place to practice and play."

Unlike many LPGA stars—such as players Morgan Pressel, Christie Kerr and Paula Creamer—who started playing and winning as teenagers, Tamulis has been something of a late bloomer. She spent four years on the women’s team at Florida State where she also earned a degree in multinational business. She was named an All-American in her senior year.

She learned the game growing up in Michigan, where her father, Walter, owned a golf course 50 miles north of Detroit. Her mother, Carol, did the books and Tamulis worked in a variety of jobs around the course when she wasn’t out playing. The family started spending winters in Naples in 1988, and Tamulis attended Seacrest Country Day School. By the time she was in high school, she was living in Naples full time while her folks went back to open the Michigan course. Several times, friends of her family took her in as one of their own and "it was like I was just another kid in the house. It was great," she says.

When Tamulis graduated from Florida State in 2003, she wasn’t certain she wanted to pursue a golf career. She stayed in Tallahassee and went to graduate school while working as a graduate assistant in the Seminoles athletic training program. But the lure of the game eventually pulled her away from academia and back to the practice tee.

Eventually, Tamulis found her way to the LPGA’s Futures Tour, a satellite circuit now owned by the LPGA and designed to give up-and-coming players a chance to hone their skills and get a taste of competing for money.

In her first year on the Futures Tour, Tamulis finished ninth on the money list and was exempt from the first stage of the LPGA qualifying tournament. She missed earning a full exemption to play the LPGA Tour by a single shot that year, but she had enough status from her qualifying-tour finish to make it into 11 events in 2005, her rookie season. Tamulis still doesn’t have full-playing status on the LPGA, but she earned enough money in her first two years, close to $100,000, so that she can still get into most events on the tour. Occasionally, she’ll duck back to the Futures Tour, as she did this past August, when she finished second in an event in Morgantown, W.V., and earned $6,850.

In June, she also had the thrill of seeing her name on the leader board at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles in Southern Pines, N.C., Tamulis posted a one-over par 143 after 36 holes, and was only a shot behind the leader in the clubhouse when second-round play was suspended because of bad weather. Tamulis faded on the weekend, finishing tied for 35th in America’s national championship, but her $17,000 payday provided a welcome boost to her bank account and allowed her to remain self-sufficient for the rest of the year.

"I totally support myself," she says. "I have no sponsors. I get clubs, balls and clothes for free, but I take care of everything else, and I’m proud of that."

Her coach at Naples High School, Tim Fredeen, is equally proud of his former player. The head pro at Golden Gate Country Club, Fredeen often plays with Tamulis when she’s in town during the off season. He has also caddied for her occasionally, including at a U.S. Open qualifier in Orlando two years ago when he saw a side of Tamulis he’d never seen before. "I just saw her really get after herself when she missed a shot," Fredeen says. "In the past, she never really ever got riled up on the course. She was always calm. No, she didn’t yell at me, but she definitely showed a lot of emotion. She showed me a little more fire than I’d ever seen before. And that’s good."

Tamulis struggled through the 2007 season, missing the cut in 10 events. But she says her game is improving each year, and she remains confident she will be contending in tournaments on a regular basis. "It’s a matter of getting confidence," she says. "I am definitely getting better every year. I wasn’t really groomed the way some of these other girls were. I never went to a golf academy where school was a sideline. I played other sports all through middle school and high school. I feel like I’m getting closer to where I want to be all the time."

Fredeen can see it coming as well.

"Kris is a very steady player and does well on courses that are tight and difficult because she keeps the ball in play," he says. "Her short game has really improved since we had her in high school, and I really believe she can win out there. I can tell you her greatest strength; she’s determined. She wants to do this and she wants to do it well. She won’t quit. I know that."