Liv Wollin

Liv Wollin (née Forsell) (born 17 April 1945) is a Swedish professional golfer, who is regarded as having been one of the best Swedish female amateur players ever.

Liv Wollin
Personal information
Full nameLiv Wollin
Born (1945-04-17) 17 April 1945
Stockholm, Sweden
Sporting nationality Sweden
ResidenceFalsterbo, Sweden
SpousePaul Wollin (1972–1987)
Children1
Career
Turned professional1983
Achievements and awards
Swedish Golfer of the Year1966, 1968

Early life

Wollin grew up in Lidingö outside Stockholm, Sweden, as the only girl among five siblings. Her parents were Jacob Forsell and Mette, nee Grut, and they were not golfers. She started out golf in 1958 as a caddie at Lidingö Golf Club close to their house. With few girls playing the game in those days, she usually played with boys. Her older brother Joachim (called "Kim") and Swedish elite amateur Gustav Adolf Bielke were both role models for her while learning the game at young age. She always preferred to develop her golfing abilities by playing on the course instead of practicing a lot on the driving range. Her swing technique was characterized by a short and quick backswing, just like the one of G. A. Bielke.

Other sports she practiced, was curling, bowling, table tennis and squash.

By saving the money, she received from her father, who was a medical doctor, for not smoking before 18 years of age, she financed a Volkswagen Beetle car, to travel with between golf tournaments in Sweden in the early 1960s, often with best golfing friend Cecilia Perslow (who 1967 married French golfer Gaëtan Mourgue d'Algue). Wollin and Perslow in 1966 came to meet in the final of the Swedish Match-play Championship when Perslow was the defending champion. Wollin won the match, played at Perslow's home course Örebro Golf Club.[1][2][3]

Amateur career

She became the first Swedish golfer with international success and had a long amateur career. Despite playing mostly in Scandinavia, she several times proved to be among the best female amateur golfers in the world.[4] She represented Lidingö Golf Club until 1969 and, after moving to the very south-west end of Sweden, Falsterbo Golf Club since 1970.

In 1963, 18 years old, she won two of three major amateur championships in Sweden at that time and won individually the qualification competition at the European Ladies' Team Championship. The same year, she advanced to the third round of the British Ladies Amateur, a feat she repeated in 1965 at St Andrews.[5]

Wollin reached the final of the Swedish closed championship eleven times and won ten of them. Winning the title for the eight time in 1973 at Halmstad Golf Club, she had to play 39 holes in the final against Anna Skanse. Wollin was pregnant in her sixth month, six holes down after 21 holes and never leading the final until the end after the third extra hole.[6]

In 1980, Wollin became the first Swedish golfer to reach the final of the British Ladies Amateur at Woodhall Spa Golf Club, where she lost 3 and 1 to Anne Sander, United States.[7] 12 years earlier, in 1968, Wollin reached the semi-finals.[5]

Wollin also won the open amateur championships of Sweden, Morocco and Portugal.

Wollin represented Sweden in ten consecutive World Amateur Team Golf Championships, the Espirito Santo Trophy, between 1964 and 1982, a record beaten only by Marina Ragher from Italy. In 1966 in Mexico City, Wollin finished tied fourth individually. For the 1968 Espirito Santo Trophy in Melbourne, Australia, the Swedish Golf Federation decided, by economic reasons, to not send a team, but Wollin initiated to collect the necessary sponsorship to make the trip. In the end, the Swedish team finished fourth and Wollin sixth individually. In 1972 in Buenos Aires, Wollin, together with Christina Westerberg and Birgit Forsman, earned the first ever Swedish medal in the amateur worlds, men or women, when the Swedish team finished third, while Wollin finished tied third with Laura Baugh in the individual competition. In the 1976 event, Wollin again finished tied third, this time with Debbie Massey, after winner Nancy Lopez and runner-up Catherine Lacoste.

At the 1975 European Ladies' Team Championship at Golf de Saint-Cloud, outside Paris, France, Wollin again won individually at the qualification competition, as she did 12 years earlier. In the quarter-final between Sweden and, champions to be, France, Wollin defeated former U.S. Women's Open champion Catherine Lacoste, 3 and 2, on her home soil.[8]

In 1981, she was a member of the winning Swedish team at the European Ladies' Team Championship in Portugal, together with Hillewi Hagström, Viveca Hoff, Gisela Linnér, Charlotte Montgomery and Pia Nilsson.[9]

When she finally turned professional in 1983, she was 38 years old and her long and successful career was almost coming to its end. Up and coming Swedish stars Kärstin Ehrnlund and Liselotte Neumann, at that period of time, turned professional as teenagers.

Awards, honors

In 1963, 18 years old, Wollin earned Elite Sign No. 41 by the Swedish Golf Federation, on the basis of national team appearances and national championship performances.[1]

Wollin was twice awarded Swedish Golfer of the Year, male and female, 1966 and 1968. (Until 1976, there was a rule stating that a player not could receive the award more than two times.)[1]

In 1966, she was awarded Swedish Sportswomen of the Year.[10]

In 1984, she received The Golden Club ("Guldklubban") by the Swedish Golf Federation for contributions to Swedish golf.[1]

Personal life

During her early amateur career, she worked as a school teacher. At the beginning of 1970, she moved from Stockholm to the province of Scania in southern Sweden, to work at Club Golf, an indoor golf training facility in Malmö.

She won the Swedish Championship in curling in 1964.

Her brother Jacob Forsell (1942–2023), was a well-known Swedish photographer.

She was married to Paul Wollin (1946–1990) from 1972 to 1987. In 1985, the two of them won the Swedish Championship for married couples, played as foursome.[5] Their daughter Anna was born in 1973.

She was a member of the board of the Swedish Golf Federation from 1994 to 1997. She is an honorary member of Falsterbo Golf Club and The Swedish Golf Historical Society.

Amateur wins

Source: [1][5]

Team appearances

Amateur

References
  1. Jansson, Anders (2004). Golf - Den stora sporten [Golf - The great sport] (in Swedish). Swedish Golf Federation. pp. 63, 95. ISBN 91-86818007.
  2. "Vem är det : Svensk biografisk handbok 1993" [Who is it? Swedish biographical handbook 1993]. runeberg.org (in Swedish). Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  3. "Än är det liv i tanten" [The Lady is still alive]. Svensk Golf. No. 5. April 2002. pp. 80–96.
  4. Peter, Modie; Anders, Janson; Bengt, Lorichs (1995). Golflexikon: svensk och internationell golf från A till Ö (in Swedish). Höganäs: Bra böcker. ISBN 91-7119-683-8.
  5. Jansson, Anders (1979). Golf - Den gröna sporten [Golf - The green sport] (in Swedish). Swedish Golf Federation. pp. 21, 193–195, 214, 233. ISBN 9172603283.
  6. "Högdramatisk damfinal: Livs tyngsta SM-triumf" [Dramatic Ladies' final: Liv's toughest Championship triumph]. Svensk Golf. No. 4. July 1973. pp. 27–28.
  7. "4 titles – 4 names". Glasgow Herald. 23 June 1980. p. 17.
  8. Ohlsson, Jörgen (July 1975). "Liv etta i Europa "Min bästa tävling"" [Liv Number one in Europe "My best competition"]. Svensk Golf. No. 5. pp. 30–32.
  9. Swedish Golf Federation: European Ladies' Team Championship
  10. "Liv Forsell Årets Idrottskvinna" [Liv Forsell - Sportswomen of the Year]. Svensk Golf. No. 1. February 1967. p. 27.
  11. Swedish Golf Federation: Espirito Santo Trophy
  • Liv Wollin at the Golfdata official site (in Swedish)
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