José-Filipe Lima (born Philippe Lima; November 26, 1981) is a Portuguese

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. He won the 2004

Aa St Omer Open The Saint-Omer Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at Saint-Omer Golf Club in Saint-Omer, France. The tournament was founded in 1997 and was part of the MasterCard Tour a year later, before taking its place on the Challen ...

to gain a place on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

. His best seasons were from 2005 to 2007 when he finished in the top-100 on the European Tour Order of Merit. Successful

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

seasons in 2009, 2013 and 2016 have promoted him back to the European Tour but, on each occasion he has failed to retain his place on the tour. He was runner-up in the 2007

BMW International Open The BMW International Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour held in Germany. History Founded in 1989, it was held near BMW's home city of Munich every year until 2012. From 1989 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2011 i ...

Early life

Lima has

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

parents but was born in

Versailles, France Versailles () is a commune in the department of the Yvelines, Île-de-France, renowned worldwide for the Château de Versailles and the gardens of Versailles, designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Located in the western suburbs of the French c ...

and grew up mainly in France. His father worked at Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, which was the host course of the

Trophée Lancôme The Trophée Lancôme was a professional golf tournament which was staged in Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, France from 1970 to 2003. Gaëtan Mourgue D'Algue, a French golf enthusiast from Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, hoped to popularize the then little-know ...

until that tournament ceased in 2003, and was his son's first coach. Lima was the top ranked French amateur at the end of 2001 and turned professional the following year. His parents come from the

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 ...

parish of

Aguçadoura Aguçadoura is a Portuguese ''freguesia'' ("civil parish") and former civil parish located in Póvoa de Varzim. In the census of 2001, it had a population of 4,530 inhabitants and a total area of 3.47 km2. A 2013 law amalgamated it into the new ...

. Up until the end of 2004 Lima represented France (as Philippe Lima) but he then adopted his parents' nationality, began to use the Portuguese form of his name professionally, and represented Portugal in that year's

WGC-World Cup The World Cup of Golf is a men's golf tournament contested by teams of two representing their country. Only one team is allowed from each country. The players are selected on the basis of the Official World Golf Ranking, although not all of the fir ...

Professional career

In 2003 Lima was the fourth ranked player on the third-level

Alps Tour The Alps Tour is a developmental professional golf tour for men which is sanctioned by the national golf associations of France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Morocco. Established in 2001, it is a third level tour, the highest level of men's gol ...

, which qualified him to move up to the main developmental tour in Europe, the

, for the 2004 season. In back to back weeks in June 2004 he won the Challenge Tour's Segura Viudas Challenge de España and the Challenge Tour/

co-sanctioned

, which won him promotion to the European Tour. After his win in the

, Lima played on the

until the end of the 2008 season, his best finish being joint runner-up in the 2007

. After a disappointing 2008 he lost his tour card and in 2009 played mostly

events. He won the ECCO Tour Championship and was runner-up in the

Saint-Omer Open The Saint-Omer Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at Saint-Omer Golf Club in Saint-Omer, France. The tournament was founded in 1997 and was part of the MasterCard Tour a year later, before taking its place on the Challen ...

and the Allianz Open du Grand Toulouse to finish second in the Order of Merit and a return to the European Tour. 2010 was another poor season with no top-10 finishes. Lima returned to the

where he played in 2011, 2012 and 2013. He did not win any tournaments in 2013 but with three runner-up finishes, in the

Mugello Tuscany Open The Mugello Tuscany Open was a golf tournament on the Challenge Tour, played in Italy. It was held for the first time in 2010 when Floris de Vries triumphed in a sudden-death playoff over Thorbjørn Olesen Jacob Thorbjørn Olesen (born 21 Decemb ...

, the Finnish Challenge and the

Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final is the season-ending tour championship on the Challenge Tour. The field currently consists of the top 45 players on the Challenge Tour rankings vying for fifteen European Tour cards. It has been played annually ...

, as well as two third-places and a fourth-place, he again finished second in the Order of Merit. His 2014

season was no more successful than 2010 and he again returned to the Challenge Tour. After an unsuccessful 2015 on the

, Lima won the 2016

Najeti Open The Saint-Omer Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at Saint-Omer Golf Club in Saint-Omer, France. The tournament was founded in 1997 and was part of the MasterCard Tour a year later, before taking its place on the Challen ...

and was runner-up in the Ras Al Khaimah Golf Challenge to finish 12th in the Order or Merit and gain promotion to the

for the fourth time. However he again failed to find any success on the main tour in 2017 and returned again to the Challenge Tour for 2018. He was runner-up in the 2018 Open de Portugal and finished the season 26th in the Order of Merit. After a poor start to 2019, Lima was joint runner-up in the

Euram Bank Open The Euram Bank Open is a golf tournament on the Challenge Tour. It was first played in July 2018 at Golf Club Adamstal in Ramsau, Lower Austria, Ramsau, Austria. Adamstal hosted the MAN NÖ Open on the Challenge Tour from 2006 to 2008. In 2020 Ch ...

behind

Calum Hill Calum Edward Hill (born 3 November 1994) is a Scottish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He won the 2021 Cazoo Classic on the European Tour and has three wins on the Challenge Tour. Amateur career Hill attended the Western New ...

in July and won the

Vierumäki Finnish Challenge The Finnish Challenge is a golf tournament on the Challenge Tour, Europe's second tier men's professional golf tour. It was first played at Golf Talma in Talma, Finland, from 2001 to 2003, but took a hiatus from 2004 to 2011. The 2012–14 editio ...

two weeks later.

Amateur wins

*2000 French International Stroke Play Championship

Professional wins (8)

European Tour wins (1)

¹Dual-ranking event with the

Challenge Tour wins (5)

''*Note: The 2009 ECCO Tour Championship was shortened to 54 holes due to weather.''
¹Dual-ranking event with the

²Co-sanctioned by the

Nordic Golf League The Nordic Golf League is one of the four PGA European Tour-recognised third-tier men's professional golf tours that are known as the Satellite Tours. The top five players on the rankings list at the end of each season earn a place on the second t ...

Challenge Tour playoff record (1–0)

Alps Tour wins (2)

Other wins (1)

*2001

Mediterranean Games The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fir ...

(as an amateur)

Results in major championships

''Note: Lima never played in the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

or the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

.''
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Team appearances

Amateur *

European Amateur Team Championship The European Amateur Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for men organised by the European Golf Association which was introduced in 1959. The championship was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has been ...

(representing France):

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

St Andrews Trophy The St Andrews Trophy is a biennial men's team golf tournament contested between teams of amateur golfers representing Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It takes its name from St Andrews in Scotland. It was first played in 1 ...

(representing the Continent of Europe): 2002 Professional *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing Portugal):

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...