Christian Lars Nilsson (born 25 May 1979) is a Swedish former

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 ...

Professional career

Nilsson was born in

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

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 ...

. He turned professional in 1999 with a plus 3 handicap. Nilsson played on the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

full-time since 2004, playing few events before then. His first event on the

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 ...

was the 2005

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

where he missed the cut. His first full season on the European Tour was 2006, and his second in 2007. In 2008 he played on both the Challenge and European Tours with his best finish a runner-up to David Dixon at the Saint-Omer Open, but he did not break through until 2009 at the same event. At the 2009 Saint-Omer Open in June, a week opposite the U.S. Open, Nilsson won his first European Tour event by 6 strokes over

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

's José-Filipe Lima. The win was Nilsson's first professional win on a recognized major golf tour. After a disappointing season in 2012 where he finished 149th in the Race to Dubai, Nilsson announced that he would be retiring from professional golf to focus more on his family. He began working as an instructing professional at Karlstad Golf Club. In 2017 he came back to competitive golf, playing on the

Nordic Golf League The Nordic Golf League is one of the third-tier men's professional golf tours, recognised by the European Tour, also known as the Satellite Tours. The top five players on the Order of Merit at the end of each season earn status to play on the seco ...

, 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 ...

and the Swedish mini tour Future Series. In 2017 and 2018 he won four times on the Future Series in Sweden.

Professional wins (9)

European Tour wins (1)

¹Dual-ranking event with the

Challenge Tour wins (1)

¹Dual-ranking event with the

Challenge Tour playoff record (0–1)

Nordic Golf League wins (3)

Other wins (5)

*2000 Vattenfall Berga Open (Swedish Mini-Tour) *2017 Kumla Open by Malmbergs Elektriska AB, Bråviken Open, OVAKO Hagge Open (all Swedish minitour Future Series) *2018 Hårga Open (Swedish minitour Future Series)

Team appearances

Amateur *

European Boys' Team Championship The European Boys' Team Championship (Jean-Louis Dupont Trophy) is a European amateur team golf championship for men up to 18 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1980 and it has been played annually since. S ...

(representing Sweden): 1996, 1997 *

Jacques Léglise Trophy The Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual amateur boys' team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It was first played in 1977, as a one-day match before the Boys Amateur Championship, but since 1996 it has ...

(representing the Continent of Europe): 1996 (winners) *

European Youths' Team Championship The European Youths' Team Championship was a European amateur team golf championship for men under 22 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1961. It was played every year until 1982, then every second year. It ...

(representing Sweden): 1998 *

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958 Eisenhower Trophy, 1958, it is nam ...

(representing Sweden):

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 ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Christian Swedish male golfers European Tour golfers Sportspeople from Karlstad 1979 births Living people