Liselotte Neumann

Liselotte Neumann was one of the first European golfers to play full-time and enjoy good success on the LPGA Tour. She began the influx of Swedish golfers that accelerated with Annika Sorenstam, who followed Neumann in the LPGA timeline.

Born: May 20, 1966, in Finspang, Sweden
Nickname: Lotta

LPGA: 13

Ladies European Tour: 10

1
U.S. Women's Open: 1988

• LPGA Rookie of the Year, 1988
• Member, Europe Solheim Cup team, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000
• Captain, Europe Solheim Cup team, 2013

Liselotte Neumann was one of the first European golfers to play full-time on the LPGA Tour and enjoy great success.

After dabbling in soccer, bandy (think of it as soccer on ice), and table tennis as a youth, Neumann picked up golf at age 10. By 15, she had won the Swedish International Championship.

Neumann won numerous national amateur titles in Sweden, including the Swedish Amateur in 1982-83, and represented her country in international competitions.

She turned pro at age 19, joining the WPGET, the precursor to the Ladies European Tour. Her first victory came in 1985.

Early in her career, and throughout, Neumann was a truly international golfer, playing (and winning) on the Asian and Japanese tours, as well as in Australia, in addition to Europe and America.

Once, according to a story she often tells, Neumann's group in an Asian Tour tournament ran out of water on a 100-degree day. No more bottled water was available from the tournament organizers, so Neumann's local caddie climbed a palm tree and the players quenched their thirst with coconut milk.

Those conditions began becoming a thing of the past for Neumann when she decided, in 1987, to play the U.S. Women's Open, her first tournament in the U.S. She watched as fellow LET golfer Laura Davies won the event, and was inspired to try playing the LPGA full-time.

The following year, it was Neumann who won the U.S. Women's Open, and she was named Rookie of the Year on the LPGA. She also won in Europe that year, while losing to Patty Sheehan in a playoff in Japan.

Neumann's best years on the LPGA were the mid to late 1990s. She won three times each in 1994 and 1996, and posted two victories each in 1997 and 1998. She finished as high as third on the money list during that stretch, with three other Top 10s.

Neumann also won the Women's British Open along the way, in 1994; however, that tournament was not yet considered a major at that point. But in addition to finishing third on the LPGA money list in 1994, she also led the LET in money that year.

Neumann was a mainstay on the European Solheim Cup team throughout her best years, representing Team Europe six times. She will be the captain of Team European at the 2013 Solheim Cup.