Helen Alfredsson

Alfredsson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. Alfredsson would be known as a "free-spirited" person who shared a birthday with two other "free-spirits", the late Seve Ballesteros and Hugh Hefner. When she was 11, Alfredsson picked up a golf club at the suggestion of her father, Bjorn. In summer and on weekends during the school year, Alfredsson would play in tournaments throughout southern Sweden, and as a 14-year-old she was the youngest member of the Swedish junior team. Alfredsson was the Swedish national champion from 1981-84, in 1986 and 1988. She won the 1984 Belgium Junior International Championship and finished third at the 1988 European Individual Championship.
In the winter of her senior year in high school, Alfredsson met a man at a dance club who told her she could make a lot of money
in Paris as a model. Within a week Alfredsson was on a plane to France. Being a model, however, was not all she had imagined, which got her back into golf. Alfredsson returned to Sweden and finished high school at 19, then after getting golf scholarship to U.S. International University went to San Diego. After graduating from USIU in 1988 with a 3.2-grade point average and a degree in international business and marketing, Alfredsson went home to play on the Ladies European Tour. In her rookie year she was the Ladies European Tour (LET) Rookie of the Year in 1989; won the 1990 Weetabix Women's British Open and was a member of the inaugural European Solheim Cup Team in 1990. She won twice on the LET in 1991 and won once each on the ALPG and Japanese tours. She earned exempt status for the 1992 LPGA Tour season by tying for 17th at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament. After playing in the inaugural Solheim Cup in 1990, Helen showed up for LPGA Q-School with the thought of playing on the LPGA Tour in 1991. But while standing on the practice putting green in tournament week, she learned she had missed the event's signup deadline. She couldn't play and had to wait a full year to finally get her LPGA Tour card.
She earned Rookie of the Year honors on the LPGA Tour in 1992 despite not winning. She came close finishing 2nd at the Mazda Japan Classic, losing a four-hole playoff to Betsy King. She did win three international events, the Hennessy Cup, the IBM Open and the Itoki Classic in Japan along with being a member of the victorious European Solheim Cup Team.
Alfredsson won for the first time in an LPGA major, the 1993 Nabisco Dinah Shore. A little over three months after her Dinah Shore victory, Alfredsson nearly won the U.S. Women's Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club, finishing T-2nd, one shot behind winner Lauri Merten. Alfredsson won $402,686 and was 5th on the LPGA money list.
Alfredsson played full time on the LPGA Tour between 1992 and 2010. In 395 starts she made the cut in 298 events and was in the top 10, 82 times. Helen had total earnings of $5,792,555 on the LPGA Tour. Her best year was in 1998 when she won twice (The Office Depot & Welch's /Circle K Championship. She earned $471,859 and was 14th on the money list. On the Ladies European Tour, she won the Evian Masters and led the European Tour money list.
Alfredsson has been a member of the European team in the Solheim Cup eight times: in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2009. Helen won a total of 12 points and had a career record of 11 wins, 15 losses, and 2 halves. She was captain of the European Solheim Cup team in the 2007 Solheim Cup, in which Europe lost to the USA, 16-12.
In 2005, Alfredsson went to the wedding of former NHLer Ulf Nilsson and met hockey star Kent Nilsson who had recently retired and was playing a lot of golf. The two dated and then married. After that, Nilsson sometimes caddied for his wife. They have six stepchildren.
The last few years of Alfredsson's career were slowed by an injured shoulder that she said was prolonged by misdiagnosis. Eventual surgery led to eight months of rehab. After that Alfredsson worked hard and didn't want to be forced out by injury. In talks with her husband who knew when it was time to retire from the NHL, he said to her that she would know when it was time. She realized that it was time and announced at the Helsingborg Open she was stepping away from competitive golf and made the Evian Championship her last event.
Today, she shuttles back and forth from her Bay Hill home and an apartment in Stockholm. At the end of 2016 Alfredsson was named Player President of the Ladies European Tour, a role in which she is an ambassador for the LET. She also has maintained her game and has played in several Legends Tour events, including two top-3 finishes in the Senior LPGA Championship.
In 2017 she was T-3rd, five back of winner Trish Johnson. She then finished T-2nd in 2018, four back of winner Laura Davies.

Helen shot 72-79-73-71=295 (+3) to finish T-6th in the first U.S. Senior Women's Open