Caroline Afonso (born 20 February 1985) is a retired

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

professional

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

er who played on the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal stru ...

(LET) 2008–2016. She was runner-up twice on the LET and won three

LET Access Series The LET Access Series (LETAS) is a professional golf tour for women and the official development tour to the Ladies European Tour. Launched in 2010, the LET Access Series provides players with an opportunity to compete and progress on to the LET ...

events.

Career

Afonso started playing golf at 10 and was coached by Philippe Mendiburu, father of LET player

Sandrine Mendiburu Sandrine Mendiburu (born 15 October 1972) is a retired French professional golfer. In 1999 Mendiburu recorded back-to-back wins on the Ladies European Tour, winning the Donegal Irish Ladies' Open in a four-way a playoff and Ladies Hannover Ex ...

. She won the French Ladies Amateur Championship twice and was ranked best amateur in France 2007. Afonso turned professional at the end of 2007 and joined the

on her first attempt in 2008, where she in her rookie year recorded top-10 finishes at

Ladies Scottish Open The Trust Golf Women's Scottish Open is a women's professional golf tournament in Scotland on the Ladies European Tour (LET). First played in 1986, it became a regular fixture on the tour schedule in 2010. Since 2017 it has been co-sanctioned ...

and Austrian Ladies Open, and ended the season 44th in the Order of Merit. She recorded further top-10 finishes at the

Finnair Masters The Ladies Finnish Masters was a women's professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour held in Helsinki, Finland, between 2005 and 2011. In 2006 Finnair, the country's largest airline, became title sponsor and it changed name to the Fi ...

in 2009 and

Ladies German Open The Ladies German Open was a professional golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does ...

, Tenerife Ladies Open and Open de France Feminin in 2010. In March 2010 Afonso earned the distinction of winning the inaugural tournament of the

, the

Terre Blanche Ladies Open The Terre Blanche Ladies Open is a women's professional golf tournament played as part of the LET Access Series, held since 2010 at Domaine de Terre Blanche in Provence on the French Riviera. The tournament served as season opener for the LET Acc ...

, securing her first professional win. She won again in July at the La Nivelle Ladies Open, and won the

2010 LET Access Series The 2010 LET Access Series was a series of professional women's golf tournaments held from March through November 2010 across Europe. The LET Access Series is the second-tier women's professional golf tour in Europe and is the official developmen ...

Order of Merit ahead of

Jade Schaeffer Jade Schaeffer (born 1 July 1986) is a French professional golfer. She played on the Ladies European Tour and won the 2009 Ladies German Open and the 2011 Raiffeisenbank Prague Golf Masters. Career Schaeffer had success as an amateur and won the ...

. On the

2011 Ladies European Tour The 2011 Ladies European Tour was a series of golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world which took place from February through December 2011. The tournaments were sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). The tour featu ...

Afonso had her most successful season, finishing third at the

, runner-up one stroke behind

Melissa Reid Melissa Rose Reid (born 19 September 1987) is an English professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour.Dutch Ladies Open The Dutch Ladies Open is a women's professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour that is played in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , ...

, and sole runner-up behind

Caroline Hedwall Caroline Ingrid Hedwall (born 13 May 1989) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the LPGA Tour. In 2013 she became the first player to win five matches in a single Solheim Cup event. As an amateur she w ...

at the Austrian Ladies Open, to end 27th in the Order of Merit. In 2012 she brought her LETAS tally on home soil to three by winning the

Fourqueux Ladies Open Fourqueux () is a former commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the commune Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It is a small suburb 20 km west of Paris. It is known for hav ...

. Afonso played in the

Women's British Open The Women's Open (originally known as the Women's British Open, and still widely referred to by that name outside the UK) is a women's major golf championships, major championship in Professional golf tours#Women's tours, women's professional go ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, and received a wild card to the

2014 Evian Championship The 2014 Evian Championship was played 11–14 September at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains, France. It was the 21st Evian Championship (the first 19 played as the Evian Masters), and the second as a major championship on the LPGA ...

, but never made the cut in a major championship. At the end of 2016 Afonso announced that she was retiring from tour.

Amateur wins

*1999 French Ladies Amateur Championship *2007 French Ladies Amateur Championship Source:

Professional wins (3)

LET Access Series wins (3)

Team appearances

Amateur *

European Ladies' Team Championship The European Ladies' Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for women organised by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1959. It was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has been pla ...

(representing France):

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Afonso, Caroline French female golfers Ladies European Tour golfers Sportspeople from Biarritz 1985 births Living people 21st-century French women