| Sharmila Nicollet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||||
| Nickname | Cherie, Nico, Shamz | ||||
| Born | 12 March 1991 Bangalore, India | ||||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||
| Sporting nationality |  India | ||||
| Residence | Bangalore, India | ||||
| Career | |||||
| Turned professional | 2009 | ||||
| Current tour(s) | Women's Golf Association of India Ladies European Tour | ||||
| Professional wins | 11 | ||||
| Achievements and awards | |||||
| |||||
Sharmila Nicollet (born 12 March 1991) is an Indian professional golfer from Bangalore, India. [1]
Nicollet was born in Bangalore. Her father Marc Nicollet is French and her mother Surekha Nicollet is from Bangalore. Surekha is a perfumist and has her own Padmini Aroma Ltd in Bangalore while Marc is a software professional. [2] [3]
Nicollet did her schooling in Bishop Cotton Girls' School and Bangalore International School finishing her 10th grade and 12th grade privately. She is now pursuing a degree privately as well. [2] [4] [5]
Nicollet pursued golf in 2002 at the age of 11. She won her first tournament at the age of 15. [4] [6] She is a former national sub-junior swimming champ with over 72 gold and silver medals won in state and national aquatic meets (1997 to 2001). She was a state level athlete as well, making records at Bishop Cotton Girls School where she studied. [2] [5] [6]
Nicollet has represented India at the Asian Games at Doha 2006 and in Asia Pacific Junior Golf Tournament, played at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego, the Queen Sirikit Cup at Japan, the Malaysian Open and other international tournaments.[ citation needed ]
Nicollet was also the youngest lady golfer to win the All-India Ladies Amateur Championship in 2007–2008, along with seven Open Amateur Tournaments. [7]
Nicollet partnered with England's Laura Davies as a 16-year-old amateur during a special Emaar – MGF Challenge Match ahead of the 2007 Ladies European Tour event that was held in India. Davies commented that, "from my experience, Sharmila has all the potential to be a good player." Her present coach Tarun Sardesai, and past coach Gaurav Diwan from KGA feel that she has the talent to achieve great things because of her natural aptitude for the game. [8]
Nicollet turned professional in 2009 when she was 18 years old. [9] She is the youngest Indian golfer to qualify for Ladies European Tour. She is the second Indian to earn a full card on the Ladies European Tour. [10]
Nicollet won the 2009–2010 Order of Merit on the Women's Golf Association of India and then five further events to finish on top of the 2010–2011 Order of Merit. [6] She finished the top Indian golfer at T22, at the 2011 Hero Honda Women's Indian Open, with the lowest score of the day in the final round. [7] [9] [11] She has a total of 11 wins on the Women's Golf Association of India.
She finally qualified with a full tour card for the Ladies European Tour in 2012, being the youngest Indian golfer to qualify. [12]
Nicollet was the champion of the Hero-KGA tournament in 2012, [13] and the Hero-WPGT in 2015. [14]
Nicollet is dating American track and field sprinter Kenny Bednarek. [15]
Alexis Noel Thompson is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 12 in 2007, she was the youngest golfer ever to qualify to play in the U.S. Women's Open, since broken by Lucy Li who was 11 in 2014. She turned professional in June 2010 at age 15. On September 18, 2011, Thompson set a then new record as the youngest-ever winner of an LPGA tournament, at age 16 years, seven months, and eight days, when she won the Navistar LPGA Classic. Three months later she became the second-youngest winner of a Ladies European Tour event, capturing the Dubai Ladies Masters by four strokes on December 17, 2011. She won her first and only major championship at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship at the age of 19 years, 1 month and 27 days, making her the second youngest LPGA golfer to win a major.
Yani Tseng is a Taiwanese professional golfer playing on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She is the youngest player ever, male or female, to win five major championships and was ranked number 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings for 109 consecutive weeks from 2011 to 2013.
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.
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.
Charley Esmee Hull is an English professional golfer who has achieved success both on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour, winning honours as Rookie of the Year, becoming the youngest competitor to participate in the international Solheim Cup matches and becoming a champion on the European circuit in 2014 before the age of 18. In 2016, she won the prestigious CME Group Tour Championship, the season-ending event of the LPGA Tour.
Lauren Abbie Taylor is an English professional golfer and Ladies European Tour player. She won The Women's Amateur Championship in 2011.
Ariya Jutanugarn is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the American-based LPGA Tour. She was born in Bangkok. She is the first golfer, male or female, from Thailand to win a major championship. She became the number one ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings in June 2017.
Su-Hyun Oh is a South Korea-born Australian professional golfer. She became the number one ranked amateur in the world in October 2013.
Aditi Ashok is an Indian professional golfer from Bangalore. She plays on the Ladies European Tour and LPGA Tour. She made her Olympic Games debut at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, representing India in golf and finished 4th.
Georgia Kelly Hall is an English professional golfer. She plays on the Ladies European Tour, and the LPGA Tour. In 2018 she won the Women's British Open at Royal Lytham; it was her first victory in a major championship.
Emily Kristine Pedersen is a Danish professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour and LPGA Tour. She had a successful amateur career winning the 2013 International European Ladies Amateur Championship and the 2014 British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship. Turning professional in early 2015 she had a successful first season, finishing runner-up in the Deloitte Ladies Open and the Lacoste Ladies Open de France before winning the Hero Women's Indian Open. She was named LET Rookie of the Year for 2015.
Atthaya Thitikul, also Jeeno Thitikul, is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. Until 2023, she was the youngest golfer ever to win a professional golf tournament at aged 14 years, 4 months and 19 days after winning the Ladies European Thailand Championship as an amateur on 9 July 2017. She was the number one ranked women's amateur golfer in the world for a total of 12 weeks, rising to the top on two occasions, the first time on 26 June 2019.
Diksha Dagar is an Indian professional golfer who is also deaf. She became the leading amateur ladies golfer in India from November 2015. Diksha Dagar represented India at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics where golf was included in the Summer Deaflympics for the very first time and competed in the women's individual golf event securing a silver medal. Diksha also qualified to represent India at the 2018 Asian Games. She is also considered one of the emerging amateur golfers in India. In 2019, she became only the second Indian female golfer after Aditi Ashok to win on the Ladies European Tour and became the youngest Indian woman to do so at the age of 18.
Céline Boutier is a French professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour. She has multiple wins on both tours including one major, the 2023 Evian Championship.
Linn Maria Grant is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour. She won the 2023 Dana Open on the LPGA Tour. As an amateur, she won the 2017 Ladies' British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
Virginia Elena Carta is an Italian professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour. She won the 2016 NCAA Women's Championship individually and received the Honda Sports Award.
Aline Krauter is a German professional golfer. She won The Women's Amateur Championship in 2020, and the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships with Stanford in 2022.
Sara Cecilia Kjellker is a Swedish professional golfer and Ladies European Tour player. She was runner-up at the 2023 Hero Women's Indian Open. As an amateur, she won twice on the Swedish Golf Tour and was European Ladies' Team Champion twice.
Avani Prashanth is an Indian amateur golfer. She was the youngest player in the Indian squad for the Asian Games at Hangzhou, China in 2023. She became the first amateur player from India to take part in the Augusta National Women's Amateur tournament.
Tvesa Malik is an Indian professional golfer from Bangalore. She plays on the Ladies European Tour and was runner-up at the 2021 Gant Ladies Open in Finland and the 2024 VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open. She won the 2024 SuperSport Ladies Challenge in South Africa.