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

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

er. 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.

Early years

Neumann was born and grew up in Finspång,

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 ...

. 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,

Karrie Webb Karrie Anne 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 ...

, Kelly Robbins 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, some of whom had not even 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 in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1983, she finished second in Orange Bowl International Junior Championship in Coral Gables,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. 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 ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

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

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. After another appearance at the Espirito Santo Trophy in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

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 (at the time named the WPGA Tour) the second half of the year, where she won twice. At the Höganäs Ladies Open at Mölle Golf Club in Sweden, she became the youngest ever winner on the WPGA Tour. She led the 1986 Ladies European Tour Order of Merit for most of the season, with eight straight top three finishes, but lost the lead to Laura Davies 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 LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

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 is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, 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 as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

. 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 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

) 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 award. In total she won thirteen times on the LPGA Tour. The 1988 U.S. Women's Open remains her only LPGA major, but she won the Women's British Open in 1994, when it was recognised as a major championship by the Ladies European Tour, 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 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 ...

. She also finished top ten in 1996,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

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

. Throughout her career on the LPGA Tour, she continued to play on the Ladies European Tour, as well as in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. She won five times in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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 Laura Davies, Jane Geddes, Betsy King and Patty Sheehan. This accomplishment was later also achieved by Alison Nicholas, Pak Se-ri,

, Inbee Park and Ariya Jutanugarn. In

Neumann topped the LET Order of Merit, was voted '' Golf Worlds Most Improved Golfer and awarded Swedish Golfer of the Year for the third time. Neumann played in the European Solheim Cup team against United States, six times in a row, 1990,

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,

, 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 ...

. She captained the team to victory in August,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colorado, 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 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 ...

Awards and honors

In 1984, Neumann earned Elite Sign No. 78 by the Swedish Golf Federation, on the basis of national team appearances and national championship performances. She was appointed 1988 Swedish Sportswomen of the Year by newspaper ''Aftonbladet'' and the Swedish Sports Confederation. Besides being awarded Swedish Golfer of the Year three times, 1985, 1988 and 1994, Neumann received the Golden Club by the Swedish Golf Federation 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 7 June 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 Helen Christine Alfredsson (born 9 April 1965) 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 fini ...

, Laura Davies,

Marie-Laure de Lorenzi Marie-Laure de Lorenzi (born 21 January 1961, in Biarritz) is a French professional golfer, also known by her married name Marie-Laure Taya. She won 19 tournaments in a span of eleven seasons on the Ladies European Tour, putting her third, later ...

, Alison Nicholas, Dale Reid and Annika Sorenstam. In May 2022, Neumann was elected, as its fourth inductee, decided by the board of the Swedish Golf Federation, into the Swedish Golf Hall of Fame, inaugurated the same year.

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 (37)

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 Women's British Open 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)

Ladies Asian Golf Circuit wins (1)

Other wins (5)

''Notes'' * ¹Co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Japan LPGA Tour * ²Co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour * ³Team event recognised by all the main women's tours, but not an official money event

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) * Espirito Santo Trophy (representing Sweden): 1982, 1984 * European Ladies' Team Championship (representing Sweden):

1983 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 of the ...

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

(winners),