Karine Icher (born 26 January 1979) is a French

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 ...

who plays mainly on the U.S.-based

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

and is also a member of 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 ...

Amateur career

Icher was born in

Châteauroux Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Ch ...

Indre Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administ ...

. She had a successful amateur career and was twice Junior Champion of France winning the Girls 15-16 age group in 1994 and the 17-18 age group in 1996. In 1997 she was a member of the victorious European team in the

Vagliano Trophy The Vagliano Trophy is a biennial women's amateur golf tournament. It is co-organised by The R&A and the European Golf Association and is contested by teams representing "Great Britain and Ireland" and the "Continent of Europe". It is played in od ...

and won the Spanish International Ladies Amateur Championship whilst in 1998 she won the French Amateur Cup. In 1999 she was in the European Team which retained the Vagliano Trophy, was part of the victorious French team at the European Team Championship, defended the French Amateur Cup and won the International Amateur Open of Germany. In 2000, she won the International Amateur Open of France and was a member of the winning French team at the 2000

Espirito Santo Trophy The Espirito Santo Trophy (World Women's Amateur Team Championships) is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for women organised by the International Golf Federation. The inaugural event was held in 1964. It was instituted by the Fren ...

Women's World Amateur Team Championship finishing fourth in the individual competition. She turned professional on 1 September 2000 and finished first at the

Qualifying School to earn exempt status for the 2001 season.

Professional career

In her 2001 LET rookie season Icher won two tournaments, the Palmerston Ladies German Open and the Mexx Sport Open in the Netherlands. She finished the year third on the Order of Merit and second behind Suzann Pettersen for the LET Rookie of the Year title. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, she won the Caja Duero Open de Espana, tied for seventh at the

Evian Masters The Evian Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as The Amundi Evian Championship, is a women's professional golf tournament in France, played at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains. It was originally held in June, move ...

and was qualified in third place for the European

2002 Solheim Cup The 7th Solheim Cup Match was held between September 20 and September 22, 2002 at Interlachen Country Club, Edina, Minnesota, USA. Team USA won the trophy for the fifth time by a score of 15 to 12 points. Rosie Jones gained the winning point in h ...

team. She earned non-exempt status for the 2003 LPGA season having tied for 38th at the 2002 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament but chose to continue full-time on the Ladies European Tour. She retained her non-exempt status at the 2003 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament by finishing tied sixty-fifth. Icher played full-time on the Ladies European Tour in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, ending with five top ten finishes including a win at the Catalonia Ladies Masters. She retained her non-exempt status at the 2004 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament by finishing tied fifty-fifth and elected to play her rookie season on the LPGA beginning the year with conditional playing privileges. A second-place finish at the

Corona Morelia Championship The Tres Marias Championship was a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour, played from 2005 to 2010, at Tres Marias Residential Golf Club in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. From 2005 through 2009 the title sponsor of the tournament ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

meant that after the re-rank she earned her full LPGA card for 2005. She finished 30th on the money list in her rookie season. She returned to the Ladies European Tour to play in the

Catalonia Ladies Masters The Catalonia Ladies Masters was a professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour that was held in Spain. It was first held in 2004 and dropped from the tour in 2008. Karine Icher won the inaugural event on 17-under-par 190 with a sco ...

which she successfully defended. She started the 2006 season by pairing with

Gwladys Nocera Gwladys Nocera (born 22 May 1975) is a French professional golfer. She currently resides in Biarritz, France. Amateur career Nocera was born in Moulins, Allier. She had a successful amateur career. She finished runner up at the 1998 British La ...

to represent France at the

Women's World Cup of Golf The Women's World Cup of Golf was a professional golf tournament contested by teams of two female golfers representing their respective countries. The tournament was played in two incarnations, first in 2000 at Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort, Co ...

Personal life

Icher gave birth to a daughter in July 2011Kingsmill Championship
Kingsmill Championship Interview Transcript September 9, 2012
September 9, 2012. Accessed April 7, 2013. and did not play in LET events or in LPGA majors after April 2011, including in the Solheim Cup in September 2011.Ladies European Tour
Karine Icher expecting a girl
2011-04-16. Retrieved 2011-07-28.

Professional wins (5)

Ladies European Tour (5)

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 ...

Palmerston Ladies German Open, Mexx Sport Open *

Caja Duero Open de Espana *

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 ...

Results in LPGA majors

''Results not in chronological order before 2019.'' ^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013 CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2010 British Open – 2013 Kraft Nabisco) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (three times)

Team appearances

Amateur *

European Lady Junior's Team Championship The European Lady Junior's Team Championship was a European amateur team golf championship for women under 22 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1968. It was played every year until 1984, then every second ye ...

(representing France): 1996 *

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):

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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 ...

(winners) *

(representing France):

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

(winners) Professional *

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force beh ...

(representing Europe):

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 ...

(winners),

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

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 France): 2006 * The Queens (representing Europe): 2015

Solheim Cup record

Notes and references

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Icher, Karine French female golfers Ladies European Tour golfers LPGA Tour golfers Solheim Cup competitors for Europe Olympic golfers of France Golfers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Indre People from Châteauroux 1979 births Living people