Catrin Maria Nilsmark (born 30 August 1967) 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 golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who played on both the United States–based

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

and the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. Most of the players on the tour are European, with members from more than 40 countries internationally. Despite its name, the tour also has tournaments in A ...

. She appeared for Europe at the

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian- American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving forc ...

five times and captained the winning team in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Early life

Nilsmark was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden. She grew up in

Lerum Lerum is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Lerum Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 43 570 inhabitants in 2024. Overview Lerum has a station on the Gothenburg commuter rail system and is a suburb of Gothenburg ...

east of Gothenburg and began her golf career at Öijared Golf Club, Sweden's first golf club with two 18-hole courses.

Amateur career

In 1984 she became the Swedish Youth under-19 Champion. She won the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

International Junior Championship in

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Greater Downtown Miami, Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

in December 1984. She played one year of collegiate golf at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

in Tampa, Florida.

Professional career

Nilsmark turned professional in 1987 but her early career was hampered by a whiplash injury sustained in a car accident. She had her maiden LET victory at the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Ford Golf Classic at

Woburn Golf and Country Club Woburn Golf Club is a golf club in England located in Little Brickhill, near Milton Keynes within the county of Buckinghamshire, about northwest of central London. There are three courses at the Woburn property: the "Duke's Course", ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and joined the U.S.-based

in 1995 having tied for 15th at the 1994

LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

to earn exempt status. She had two victories in 1999. On the

, she won the

Evian Masters The Evian Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as The Amundi Evian Championship, is a women's professional golf tournament in France, played at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains. It was originally held in June, mov ...

Évian-les-Bains Évian-les-Bains (), or simply Évian (, , or ), is a Communes of France, commune in Eastern France, by the border with Switzerland. It is located in the northern part of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. A high-m ...

, France, beating

Laura Davies Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) 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 mone ...

, 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 Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles. As of 2024, Glendale ha ...

on the

, beating

Annika Sörenstam Annika Charlotta Sörenstam (; born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer 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 p ...

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

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, sinking the winning putt in 1992 in Europe's first victory over the United States. She was the victorious European

captain in

at Barsebäck Golf &Country Club in her native

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, despite suffering from a serious back injury and leading the European team walking with crutches on the course, and the losing captain in the 2005 match. She was captain of The 2007 European PING

Junior Solheim Cup The Junior Solheim Cup is a version of the Solheim Cup for girls aged 12 to 18. It was inaugurated in 2002. It is currently officially called the Ping (golf), PING Junior Solheim Cup. The Junior Solheim Cup follows a similar format to The Solheim ...

Team. 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 The Swedish Golf Tour, currently titled as the Cutter & Buck Tour for sponsorship reasons, is a developmental professional golf which was formerly operated by Svenska Golftourerna AB, as well as being owned equally by the Swedish Golf Federatio ...

, 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 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Awards, honors

In 1992, she was, by the

Swedish Golf Federation The Swedish Golf Federation (, 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 level. It organizes tournamen ...

, awarded the Golden Club, the highest award for contributions to Swedish golf, as the 15th recipient. In 1994, she earned Elite Sign No. 99 by the

, on the basis of national team appearances and national championship performances. In 1998, Nilsmark was awarded honorary member of the PGA of Sweden. She is an honorary member at Öijared Golf Club, Sweden and at Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Personal life

Nilsmark in 1995 married Henrik Wickberg and after their divorce, she 1998-2007 was married to Fredrik Hellqvist, sport journalist and former head of Swedish

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

tournament

Scandinavian Masters The Scandinavian Masters was an annual golf tournament on the European Tour played in Sweden. In 2020, the tournament became co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour and was rebranded as the Scandinavian Mixed, in which both male and female go ...

2005–2013. During her LPGA Tour career, Nilsmark and Hellqvist, who changed his last name to Nilsmark, lived in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

, United States, in a house formerly owned by

Tony Jacklin Anthony Jacklin CBE (born 7 July 1944) is an English golfer. He was the most successful British player of his generation, winning two major championships, the 1969 Open Championship and the 1970 U.S. Open. He was also Ryder Cup captain from ...

and situated close to were Swedish golfer

Jesper Parnevik Jesper Bo Parnevik (; born 7 March 1965) is a Swedish professional golfer. He spent 38 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2000 and 2001. Early years and amateur career Parnevik was born in Botkyrka, Stockholm County, a ...

lived. She later married Per-Uno Sandberg and the couple resides in

Danderyd Danderyd Municipality (; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it is located within Sto ...

, north of

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, 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

, ahead of third placed

Nancy Lopez Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 LPGA Tour, 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three women's major golf championships, major championships. ...

. The following week, she won on the

. She worked as a golf commentator in Sweden at the television channel Viasat Golf 2007–2017.

Amateur wins

*1984 Swedish Youth under-19 Championship,

International Junior Championship

Professional wins (8)

LPGA Tour wins (1)

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

Ladies European Tour wins (2)

Swedish Golf Tour wins (5)

Results in LPGA majors

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

Team appearances

Professional *

(representing Europe):

(winners),

(non-playing captain, winners),

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

(non-playing captain) * Praia d'El Rey European Cup (representing Ladies European Tour): 1998 (tie) *

Handa Cup The Handa Cup is a series of senior women's golf matches between a United States team and a World Team drawn from players from the rest of the world. It was founded in 2006 and is an event on the LPGA Legends Tour. Since 2013 it has been officially ...

(representing World team): 2012 (tie)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsmark, Catrin Swedish female golfers South Florida Bulls women's golfers Ladies European Tour golfers LPGA Tour golfers Solheim Cup competitors for Europe Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Golfers from Gothenburg Golfers from Stockholm 1967 births Living people 20th-century Swedish sportswomen