Catrin Nilsmark | |
---|---|
![]() Nilsmark (2013) | |
Personal information | |
Full name | Maria Catrin Sandberg Nilsmark |
Born | Gothenburg, Sweden | 30 August 1967
Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
Sporting nationality | ![]() |
Residence | Danderyd, Stockholm, Sweden |
Spouse | Per-Uno Sandberg |
Children | Tuva Augusta, Sigge |
Career | |
College | University of South Florida |
Turned professional | 1987 |
Former tour(s) | LPGA Tour (1995–2005) Ladies European Tour |
Professional wins | 8 |
Number of wins by tour | |
LPGA Tour | 1 |
Ladies European Tour | 2 |
Other | 5 |
Best results in LPGA major championships | |
Chevron Championship | T15: 2003 |
Women's PGA C'ship | T9: 1998 |
U.S. Women's Open | 7th: 1996 |
du Maurier Classic | T34: 1999 |
Women's British Open | T4: 2002 |
Catrin Maria Nilsmark (born 30 August 1967) is a Swedish professional golfer who played on both the United States-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. She appeared for Europe at the Solheim Cup five times and captained the winning team in 2003.
Nilsmark was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. She grew up in Lerum east of Gothenburg and began her golf career at Öijared Golf Club, Sweden's first golf club with two 18-hole courses.
In 1984 she became the Swedish Youth under-19 Champion. She won the Orange Bowl International Junior Championship in Coral Gables, Florida in December 1984. [1] She played one year of collegiate golf at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. [2]
Nilsmark turned professional in 1987 but her early career was hampered by a whiplash injury sustained in a car accident. [3] She had her maiden LET victory at the 1994 Ford Golf Classic at Woburn Golf and Country Club, England [4] and joined the U.S.-based LPGA Tour in 1995 having tied for 15th at the 1994 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn exempt status. [2]
She had two victories in 1999. On the Ladies European Tour, she won the Evian Masters in Évian-les-Bains, France, beating Laura Davies, who was at the top of her career, with two strokes. That victory came the year before the tournament became an LPGA co-sanctioned event. It was later designated by the LPGA Tour as a major championship in women's golf. Nilsmark also won the 1999 Valley of the Stars Championship at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California on the LPGA Tour, beating Annika Sörenstam in a playoff. Nilsmark finished the year a career best second on the Ladies European Tour and 40th on the LPGA Tour.
Nilsmark played in the Solheim Cup in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000, sinking the winning putt in 1992 in Europe's first victory over the United States. She was the victorious European Solheim Cup captain in 2003 [5] at Barsebäck Golf &Country Club in her native Sweden, despite suffering from a serious back injury and leading the European team walking with crutches on the course, [6] and the losing captain in the 2005 match. [7] She was captain of The 2007 European PING Junior Solheim Cup Team. [8]
Her career was interrupted by injuries and pregnancy in 2004, but in 2008, she came back to competitive golf, playing regularly on the Swedish Golf Tour, at the time named SAS Masters Tour, representing Vidbynäs Golf Club and winning twice. She later came to represent Stockholm Golf Club.
After retiring from tournament golf in 2008, she came back at 52 years of age, playing two tournaments on the Swedish Golf Tour in 2019.
Nilsmark in 1995 married Henrik Wickberg [9] and after their divorce, she 1998-2007 was married to Fredrik Hellqvist, sport journalist and former head of Swedish European Tour tournament Scandinavian Masters 2005–2013. During her LPGA Tour career, Nilsmark and Hellqvist, who changed his last name to Nilsmark, lived in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, in a house formerly owned by Tony Jacklin and situated close to were Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik lived. [10]
She later married Per-Uno Sandberg and the couple resides in Danderyd, north of Stockholm, Sweden.
She has two children, daughter Tuva Augusta, born 1997 and son, Sigge, born 2004. In the seventh month of her pregnancy in 1997, she competed in the LET tournament Compaq Open in Stockholm, Sweden, finishing lone runner-up to Annika Sörenstam, ahead of third placed Nancy Lopez. The following week, she won on the Swedish Golf Tour.
She is an honorary member at Öijared Golf Club, Sweden and at Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club, Edinburgh, Scotland [11] and an honorary member of the PGA of Sweden. [12]
She worked as a golf commentator in Sweden at the television channel Viasat Golf 2007–2017.
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner-up | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 14 Feb 1999 | Valley of the Stars Championship | –12 (68-65-71=204) | Playoff | ![]() | [13] |
LPGA Tour playoff record (1–0)
No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1999 | Valley of the Stars Championship | ![]() | Won with par on first extra hole |
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 24 Apr 1994 | Ford Golf Classic | −12 (73-68-73-70=284) | 4 strokes | ![]() ![]() | |
2 | 12 Jun 1999 | Evian Masters | −9 (69-70-72-68=279) | 2 strokes | ![]() | [lower-alpha 1] |
Legend |
---|
National Championships (2) |
Other Swedish Golf Tour (3) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 19 May 1991 | Höganäs Ladies Open | 212 (−4) | 5 strokes | ![]() |
2 | 31 Aug 1997 | Lerum Ladies Open | 209 (−7) | 6 strokes | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
3 | 7 Sep 1997 | Öhrlings Swedish Matchplay | 3&2 | ![]() | |
4 | 6 Jun 2008 | IT-Arkitekterna Ladies Open | 219 (+3) | 2 strokes | ![]() ![]() |
5 | 30 Aug 2008 | PGA Ladies Open | 219 (+3) | 1 stroke | ![]() |
Tournament | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kraft Nabisco Championship | CUT | CUT | T57 | |||
LPGA Championship | CUT | CUT | T9 | T54 | T56 | |
U.S. Women's Open | CUT | 7 | T33 | CUT | T16 | |
du Maurier Classic | CUT | T53 | CUT | T34 |
Tournament | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kraft Nabisco Championship | T68 | CUT | T15 | 73 | |||
LPGA Championship | CUT | ||||||
U.S. Women's Open | T34 | ||||||
Women's British Open ^ | CUT | T4 | T41 | T48 |
^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
CUT = missed the half-way cut.
"T" tied.
Professional
Annika Charlotta Sörenstam is a Swedish professional golfer. She is regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she had won 96 international professional tournaments, making her the female golfer with the most wins to her name. She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 24 other tournaments internationally. After turning 50, she came back from her retirement and added a win in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women's Open.
Dame Laura Jane Davies, is an English professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the second non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA money list as well as winning the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit a record seven times: in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2006.
Karen Louise Stupples is an English former professional golfer who played primarily on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and was also a member of the Ladies European Tour.
Liselotte Maria "Lotta" Neumann is a Swedish professional golfer. When she recorded her first LPGA Tour win, by claiming the 1988 U.S. Women's Open title, Neumann also became the first Swedish golfer, male or female, to win a major championship.
Alison Nicholas is an English professional golfer, who won the 1997 U.S. Women's Open.
Helen Christine Alfredsson is a Swedish professional golfer who played primarily on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and is also a life member of the Ladies European Tour. She won the LPGA major Nabisco Dinah Shore and twice finished second in the U.S. Women's Open. She also won the Women's British Open once and the Evian Masters three times before those events were designated as majors in women's golf by the LPGA Tour. In 2019, she won a "senior slam" by winning both of the senior women's major championships.
Catriona Isobel Matthew is a Scottish professional golfer who plays mainly on the US-based LPGA Tour and is also a member of the Ladies European Tour.
Raquel Carriedo-Tomás is a Spanish professional golfer, usually called just Raquel Carriedo.
Sophie Gustafson is a Swedish professional golfer. She was a member of the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and is a life member of the Ladies European Tour (LET). She has five LPGA Tour and 23 international wins in her career, including victories on five of the six continents on which golf is played: North America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. She is a four-time LET Order of Merit winner and represented Europe in the Solheim Cup on each team from 1998 to 2011. She won the Women's British Open in 2000, the year before it was recognized as a major championship by the LPGA Tour and finished runner-up in 2005 and 2006.
Suzann Pettersen is a retired Norwegian professional golfer. She played mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour, and was also a member of the Ladies European Tour. Her career best world ranking was second and she held that position several times, most recently from August 2011 until February 2012. She retired on 15 September 2019 after holing the winning putt for the European team at the 2019 Solheim Cup, notwithstanding that she had been away from golf for almost 20 months on maternity leave prior to the event.
Karine Icher is a French professional golfer who formerly played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
Petra Charlotta Sörenstam is a retired Swedish professional golfer. As an amateur competing for the Texas Longhorns, she won the NCAA Division I Championship individual title. As a professional, she won one tournament on the LPGA Tour and represented Europe in the Solheim Cup. Her elder sister by three years, Annika, is a Hall of Fame golfer.
Maria Anna McBride is a Swedish professional golfer. She has won five times on the LPGA Tour and twice finished second in major championships.
Anna Carin Pernilla Hjalmarsson Koch is a Swedish professional golfer who previously played on the Ladies European Tour and on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She was captain of the 2015 European Solheim Cup team.
Pia Nilsson is a Swedish professional golfer and coach. She was one of the two players, who were the first female Swedes to play collegiate golf at a University in the United States and the first Swede to captain a European Solheim Cup team.
Anna Maria Nordqvist is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. She has won three major championships: the 2009 LPGA Championship, the 2017 Evian Championship, and the 2021 Women's British Open. She is the only non-American woman to have won major championships in three different decades.
Marta Figueras-Dotti is a retired Spanish professional golfer.
Caroline Ingrid Hedwall is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the LPGA Tour. In 2013 she became the first player to win five matches in a single Solheim Cup event. As an amateur she was a dominating player, winning the European Ladies Amateur Championship as well as the individual titles at the Espirito Santo Trophy and the NCAA Championship.
Madelene Maria Sagström is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She won the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio and was runner-up at the 2021 Women's British Open.