Liselotte Maria "Lotta" Neumann (born 20 May 1966) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

er. When she recorded her first LPGA Tour win, by claiming the

1988 U.S. Women's Open The 1988 U.S. Women's Open was the 43rd U.S. Women's Open, held July 21–24 at the Five Farms East Course of Baltimore Country Club in Lutherville, Maryland, a suburb north of Baltimore. Liselotte Neumann won her only major title, three strokes ...

title, Neumann also became the first Swedish golfer, male or female, to win a major championship.

Early years

Neumann was born and grew up in

Finspång Finspång () is a locality and the seat of Finspång Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 12,440 inhabitants in 2010. Overview Finspång is a traditional industrial town. The first industries were established in 1580 when a Royal fa ...

, Sweden. Her father Rune was a former football player and coach of a local girls football team. After practicing different sports and supported by her father, her mother Ingegerd and her brother Mats, Neumann began playing golf at the local 9-hole course at Finspång Golf Club. She showed early promise and won the unofficial national youth championships, Colgate Cup, at three different levels, as a 12, 14, and 16-year-old. Neumann has later given a lot of credit, for her successful career, to her local coach since her early years, Pierre Karlström. Neumann also has showed her loyalty to her first golf club by, three times during the peak of her career in the 1990s, inviting some of the female golf stars of the world,

Laura Davies Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English female professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the first non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA ...

Karrie Webb Karrie Ann Webb (born 21 December 1974) is an Australian professional golfer. She plays mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour, and also turns out once or twice a year on the ALPG Tour in her home country. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of ...

Kelly Robbins Kelly Robbins (born September 29, 1969) is a former American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1992 and won nine LPGA Tour events, including one major championship, during her career. Amateur career Robbins was born ...

and Jane Geddes among others, for exhibition matches in Finspång.

Amateur career

In 1981, only 15 years of age, she sensationally won the Swedish International Amateur Stroke-Play Championship, one of three major amateur tournaments in Sweden at the time, at Jönköping Golf Club, with a record aggregate of 282 and a 9-stroke margin. She bettered her personal 72-hole best with 30 strokes and beat the whole Swedish amateur national team, of which some did not even had heard of Neumann before the tournament. At the time of her triumph, she wasn't even qualified for the Swedish national junior team, which, the same summer, won the European Lady Junior's Team Championship. The year after, she successfully defended her stroke-play title and, at 16 years old, was a member of the national team at the

Espirito Santo Trophy The Espirito Santo Trophy (World Women's Amateur Team Championships) is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for women organised by the International Golf Federation. The inaugural event was held in 1964. It was instituted by the Fre ...

in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1983, she finished second in Orange Bowl International Junior Championship in

Coral Gables Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the U ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. In 1984, she was the Swedish Match Play champion (tournament for first time open for professionals), member of the winning Swedish team at the European Lady Junior's Team Championship at Campo de Golf El Saler,

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

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, and medalist at the 36-hole qualifying competition in the European Ladies Team Championship, in

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

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. After another appearance at the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in late 1984, she turned professional at the beginning of 1985, not yet 19 years old.

Professional career

She collected her first professional win at the Pierre Robert Cup, over 54 holes at Falsterbo Golf Club, in Sweden in May 1985 and played on the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal str ...

(at the time named the WPGA Tour) the second half of the year, were she won twice. At the

Höganäs Ladies Open The Höganäs Ladies Open was a women's professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour in 1984 and 1985, and on the Swedish Golf Tour between 1986 and 1994. It was always held at Mölle Golf Club in Höganäs, Sweden Sweden, ...

Mölle Golf Club Mölle Golf Club is a golf club located on the Kullen peninsula in Höganäs Municipality, southwestern Sweden. It has hosted the Höganäs Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour. Location The course, partially overlooking the Öresund strait, ...

in Sweden, she became the youngest ever winner on the WPGA Tour. She led the

1986 Ladies European Tour The 1986 Ladies European Tour was a series of golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world which took place in 1986. The tournaments were sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Tournaments The table below shows the 19 ...

Order of Merit for most of the season, with eight straight top three finishes, but lost the lead to

at the last tournament, the Spanish Open. While Davies won the tournament, Neumann finished 27th, her worst of the season. In the rankings, Neumann finished second, earning £494 less than Davies. The same year the ladies' Swedish Golf Tour get started with seven tournaments and Neumann was its first Order of Merit winner. Neumann became a member of the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of wee ...

in 1988, after tying fourth at the LPGA Tour Final Qualifying Tournament in late 1987. At the 1988 U.S. Women's Open at Baltimore Country Club, Five Farms,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

, July 21-24, at 22 years of age, Neumann led wire-to-wire in just her 16th LPGA Tour tournament, setting a new tournament first-round record 67 and 72-hole record 277, becoming the first Swedish major winner, male or female, as well as the first Swedish tournament winner on the LPGA Tour or the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. She became the fifth non-U.S.-winner and the second youngest (by two months to Catherine Lacoste in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...

) in the 43-year history of the championship. She was voted 1988 LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year and earned her second

Swedish Golfer of the Year Swedish Golfer of the Year is awarded annually by the Swedish Golf Federation. The award is individual and awarded since 1966 to the Swedish golfer with the best overall golf performance each year, either in a series of achievements or a single b ...

award. She was also appointed 1988 Swedish Sportswomen of the Year by ''Aftonbladet'' and the

Swedish Sports Confederation The Swedish Sports Confederation ( sv, Riksidrottsförbundet, RF) is the umbrella organisation of the Swedish sports movement. Through its member organisations, it has three million members in 22,000 clubs. The Confederation was formed on 31 May 1 ...

. In total she won thirteen times on the LPGA Tour. The

remains her only LPGA major, but she won the

Women's British Open The Women's Open (originally known as the Women's British Open, and still widely referred to by that name outside the UK) is a major championship in women's professional golf. It is recognised by both the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour ...

in 1994, when it was recognised as a major championship by the

, but not by the LPGA Tour. She also finished second five times in three other major championships. Her best finish on the LPGA Tour money list is third in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

. She also finished top ten in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

. Throughout her career on the LPGA Tour, she continued to play on the

, as well as in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

and Australia. She won five times in Japan and the 1995 Women's Australian Open. Her victory in the 1994 Women’s British Open made her the fifth player to win both British and U.S. Open titles, joining

, Jane Geddes, Betsy King and Patty Sheehan. This accomplishment was later also achieved by

Alison Nicholas Alison Nicholas, (born 6 March 1962) is an English professional golfer. Amateur career Nicholas was born in Gibraltar. She was educated at the School of St Mary and St Anne (now Abbots Bromley School for Girls). She enjoyed a very successful a ...

Pak Se-ri Pak Se-ri or Se-ri Pak ( ko, 박세리, ; born 28 September 1977) is a South Korean former professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 1998 to 2016. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007. Career overview Born in ...

, Inbee Park and Ariya Jutanugarn. In

Neumann topped the LET Order of Merit, was voted ''

Golf World ''Golf World'' was a weekly magazine covering the game of golf published by Condé Nast. It was in circulation between 1947 and 2014. Currently, ''Golf World'' still available in digital form and from May 13, 2019 to April 8, 2022, the brand has b ...

s Most Improved Golfer and awarded

for the third time. Neumann played in the European Solheim Cup team against United States, six times in a row, 1990,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

, and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. She captained the team to victory in August,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

at Colorado Golf Club in

Parker, Colorado Parker is a home rule municipality in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. As a self-declared "town" under the home rule statutes, Parker is the second most populous town in the county; Castle Rock is the most populous (the community of Hi ...

, the first time team Europe won the cup on foreign soil, and the first time Europe won consecutive cups. Neumann won the Women's World Cup of Golf for Sweden in 2006 with

Annika Sörenstam Annika Charlotta Sörenstam (; born 9 October 1970) 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 90 intern ...

Awards and honors

Besides being awarded Swedish Golfer of the Year three times, Neumann received the Golden Club by the

Swedish Golf Federation The Swedish Golf Federation ( sv, Svenska Golfförbundet, SGF) is the governing body for the sport of golf in Sweden, founded in 1904. The federation is responsible for administering the Rules of Golf, as laid down by The R&A, at the national leve ...

in 1998, as the tenth person, for great contributions to Swedish golf. In 1998, she also became an honorary member of the PGA of Sweden. She was recognized during the LPGA’s 50th Anniversary in 2000 as one of the LPGA’s top 50 players and teachers. On June 7, 2006, the Ladies European Tour announced that Neumann has earned Lifetime Membership of the LET, at the time a feat achieved by six other golfers, Helen Alfredsson,

Marie-Laure de Lorenzi Marie-Laure de Lorenzi (born 21 January 1961, in Biarritz) is a French professional golfer. She is also known by her married name Marie-Laure Taya, and competed using that name until midway through 1989 when she reverted to her maiden name. De ...

, Dale Reid and

Annika Sorenstam Annika is a feminine given name. It is the Swedish pet form of Anna, similar to Anneke in the Netherlands. It is also common in Germany, Finland and Estonia, gaining popularity after 1969 from the character of that name in the ''Pippi Longs ...

Amateur wins

*1981 Swedish International Stroke-play Championship *1982 Swedish Junior Stroke-play Championship, Swedish International Stroke-play Championship, Scandinavian Foursome (with Signe Lindfeldt), Dunlop Open (Täby GC)

Professional wins (36)

LPGA Tour wins (13)

LPGA Tour playoff record (2–2) Major championships is shown in bold.

Ladies European Tour wins (11)

Ladies European Tour playoff record (1–1) ''Note: Neumann won the

once after it was co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour in 1994, but before it was recognized as a major championship on the LPGA Tour in 2001.''

LPGA of Japan Tour wins (5)

LPGA of Japan Tour playoff record (1–1)

ALPG Tour wins (1)

ALPG Tour playoff record (1–0)

Other wins (5)

*1984 (1) Swedish Match-play Championship (as an amateur) *1985 (1) Pierre Robert Cup (Sweden) *1987 (1) Singapore Open (Asian Tour) *1992 (1)

Sunrise Cup World Team Championship The Sunrise Cup World Team Championship was a professional golf tournament contested by teams of two female golfers representing their respective countries. The tournament was played at the Sunrise Golf & Country Club in Taiwan. The field consis ...

(team with Helen Alfredsson) (individual, shared with

Trish Johnson Patricia Mary "Trish" Johnson (born 17 January 1966) is an English professional golfer. Early life and amateur career Johnson was born in Bristol. Her three brothers were all golfers, one of them was a professional golfer. She practiced other ...

, England) *2006 (1) Women's World Cup of Golf (team event with

; recognised by all the main women's tours, but not an official money event) ¹Co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Japan LPGA Tour
²Co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour

Legends Tour wins (4)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001. CUT = missed the half-way cut.
WD = withdrew
"T" tied.

Summary

*Starts – 85 *Wins – 1 *2nd-place finishes – 5 *3rd-place finishes – 4 *Top 3 finishes – 10 *Top 5 finishes – 13 *Top 10 finishes – 17 *Top 25 finishes – 34 *Missed cuts – 21 *Most consecutive cuts made – 14 *Longest streak of top-10s – 3

LPGA Tour career summary

Team appearances

Amateur * European Lady Junior's Team Championship (representing Sweden): 1982, 1983, 1984 (winners) *

(representing Sweden):

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

* European Ladies' Team Championship (representing Sweden):

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

* Vagliano Trophy (representing Continent of Europe): 1983 Professional * Solheim Cup (representing Europe): 1990,

(winners),

(winners, non-playing captain) *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing Sweden): 2006 (winners) * Handa Cup (representing World team): 2011, 2013 (winners), 2014, 2015

Solheim Cup record

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Liselotte Swedish female golfers LPGA Tour golfers Ladies European Tour golfers Winners of LPGA major golf championships Solheim Cup competitors for Europe Sportspeople from Östergötland County People from Finspång Municipality People from Rancho Mirage, California 1966 births Living people