Kristina Engström Tucker (born 26 June 1980) is a Swedish professional golfer who played mainly on the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

-based

Futures Tour The Epson Tour, previously known as the LPGA Futures Tour, and known for sponsorship reasons between 2006 and 2010 as the Duramed Futures Tour and between 2012 and 2021 as the Symetra Tour, is the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour ...

. Tucker was born Kristina Engström in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and began playing golf at age 10. She won the Swedish Girls Championship back-to-back 1997 and 1998, and moved to the U.S. in 1999 to play at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, where she won three collegiate tournaments, and even got to meet President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

after she and her teammates won the national championship her junior year. After graduating, Tucker returned to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

to play on the

Telia Tour The Swedish Golf Tour (currently known as the MoreGolf Mastercard Tour for sponsorship reasons), is a developmental professional golf tour, professional golf formerly operated by Svenska Golftourerna AB, owned equally by the Swedish Golf Federati ...

, where she won one event. In Sweden, Tucker attended the same high school as

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

player

Jesper Parnevik Jesper Bo Parnevik (; born 7 March 1965) is a Swedish professional golfer. He spent 38 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2000 and 2001. Early years and amateur career Parnevik was born in Botkyrka, Stockholm County, a ...

and had a class with

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

' wife,

Elin Nordegren Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren (; formerly Woods; born 1 January 1980) is the Swedish-born ex-wife of professional golfer Tiger Woods. Nordegren has worked as a model and nanny. Early life and education Nordegren was born in Stockholm. Her moth ...

. Her husband Paul Tucker, whom she met at Duke, is a former professional player on the

NGA Hooters Tour SwingThought, formerly the NGA Pro Golf Tour, is the oldest developmental golf tour based in the United States. The tour was acquired by Golf Interact in 2014 and rebranded as SwingThought. The tour consists of around 25 professional golf tourna ...

. Tucker appeared on '' The Big Break V: Hawaii'', the fifth edition of

The Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently based out of NBC Sp ...

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

competition program ''

The Big Break ''The Big Break'' is a reality television program broadcast by the Golf Channel. The show's premise was to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events or full-season exemptions on lower-level tours. The series debuted on ...

''. The show's premise is to award aspiring

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 ...

professionals exemptions into event on major tours, eliminating one contestant each week through a series of challenges until only one player is left. ''The Big Break V: Hawaii'' was filmed at the

Turtle Bay Resort The Turtle Bay Resort is a resort with cottages on the North Shore of Oahu island in Hawaii. Description The resort is about a 50-minute drive from Honolulu, between Kahuku, Hawaii Kahuku () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Honolulu, H ...

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

's North Shore in October 2005, and the show premiered on The Golf Channel on in February 2006. Tucker made the cut and ended up finishing in a 4-way tie for 20th at the

2006 U.S. Women's Open The 2006 U.S. Women's Open was the 61st U.S. Women's Open, held June 30 to July 3 at Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island. Delayed by fog for a day, the first round started on Friday and the final two rounds were played on Sunday. The ...

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

, becoming the first-ever ''

''-contestant to make a cut in an event on a tour offered as a prize. In 2008, Tucker captured her first professional title in the United States at the

El Paso Golf Classic The El Paso Golf Classic was an annual golf tournament for professional women golfers on the Futures Tour, the LPGA's developmental tour. The event was a part of the Futures Tour's schedule from 2002 through 2008. It took place at the Underwood Gol ...

, finishing at 11-under-par with a three-round total of 205 to earn the $11,900 winner's prize. She beat out Leah Wigger of Louisville, Kentucky, Sophia Sheridan of Guadalajara, Mexico, and Stella Lee of Seoul, South Korea, all at 8-under-par 208, by three shots for top honors. With the win, Tucker became the third Swede to win a

Duramed Futures Tour The Epson Tour, previously known as the LPGA Futures Tour, and known for sponsorship reasons between 2006 and 2010 as the Duramed Futures Tour and between 2012 and 2021 as the Symetra Tour, is the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour ...

title, where she played a total of 76 events between 2004 and 2009

Professional wins

Symetra Tour (1)

Swedish Golf Tour (1)

*1999

Felix Finnish Ladies Open The Ladies Finnish Open is a professional women's golf tournament held in Finland. It was played as part of the Swedish Golf Tour (women), Swedish Golf Tour 1998–2011, the LET Access Series 2012–2019, and after a one year hiatus, added to the L ...

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 Sweden):

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

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 ...

(winners)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Kristina Swedish female golfers Duke Blue Devils women's golfers LPGA Tour golfers Golfers from Stockholm People from Waxhaw, North Carolina 1980 births Living people