Liselotte Neumann

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

Tour Victories:
LPGA: 13

Other Tours
Ladies European Tour: 10

Major Championships:
1
U.S. Women's Open: 1988

Awards and Honors:
• LPGA Rookie of the Year, 1988
• Member, Europe Solheim Cup team, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000

Liselotte Neumann Biography:
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.

Neaumann 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, 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.

While Neumann has won 13 times in her LPGA career, she also continued playing occasionally in Europe and elsewhere. She has 10 wins on the LET, and additional wins on other tours. She also has represented Europe in six Solheim Cups.