María Parra Luque (born 4 December 1997) is a professional

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

er from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

who played on the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. Most of the players on the tour are European, with members from more than 40 countries internationally. Despite its name, the tour also has tournaments in A ...

and the

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

already as a teenager. She won the 2015 European Ladies Amateur and rose to No. 2 in the

World Amateur Golf Ranking The World Amateur Golf Ranking for men was introduced by The R&A, the governing body of the sport of golf outside the United States and Mexico, on 23 January 2007. It is based on the results of over 2,600 amateur tournaments per year (and amateurs ...

Amateur career

Parra had a successful amateur career. In 2015, she won the

European Ladies Amateur Championship The European Ladies Amateur Championship is an annual amateur golf tournament. It is organized by the European Golf Association and is one of the "elite" tournaments recognized by the World Amateur Golf Ranking The World Amateur Golf Ranking for ...

in Austria and was runner-up at the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden. She won the 2015

European Girls' Team Championship The European Girls' Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for women up to 18 organised by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1991. It was played in odd-numbered years from 1991 to 1999 and has bee ...

and was runner-up at the 2016

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 pl ...

, behind England. She represented Spain in the 2016

Junior Golf World Cup The Toyota Junior Golf World Cup () is a junior golf championship held each summer in Japan for national teams of golfers 18 and under from around the globe. Qualifying events are held on six continents to determine the 12 boys’ teams and nine g ...

and the

2016 Espirito Santo Trophy The 2016 Espirito Santo Trophy took place 14–17 September at Mayakoba El Camaleon Golf Club and Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. It was the 27th women's golf World Amateur Team Championship for the ...

, and represented Europe in the 2015 Junior Solheim Cup and the 2016

Patsy Hankins Trophy The Patsy Hankins Trophy is a women's amateur golf competition on the model of the Ryder Cup, corresponding to the men's Bonallack Trophy. The competition opposes every two years a European team and a team representing Asia/Pacific, and the venue a ...

. She rose to No. 2 in the

. As the European Ladies Amateur title holder, Parra played in the

2016 Women's British Open The 2016 Ricoh Women's British Open was played 28–31 July in England at the Woburn Golf and Country Club near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, northwest of London. It was the 40th Women's British Open, and the 16th as a major championship o ...

, where she made the cut. In 2016, while still an amateur, Parra played on the LET Access Series and won two tournaments, the PGA Halmstad Ladies Open at Haverdal in Sweden and the

Drøbak Ladies Open The Ladies Norwegian Challenge was a professional golf tournament on the Swedish Golf Tour (women), Swedish Golf Tour and the LET Access Series, held in Norway. Winners See also *Ladies Norwegian Open References External links

*{{Official ...

in Norway. She finished at number 3 on the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

and earned full status for the 2017

. She also finished T13 at the Final Stage of the 2016 LPGA Qualifying Tournament to earn membership for the 2017

Professional career

As a teenager on the

2017 LPGA Tour The 2017 LPGA Tour was a series of professional golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world. The season began in the Bahamas on January 26 and ended on November 19 at the Tiburón Golf Club in Naples, Florida. The tournaments a ...

, Parra made three cuts in 18 starts, and on the

2017 Ladies European Tour The 2017 Ladies European Tour was a series of golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world, which takes place from February through December 2017. The tournaments are sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Schedule The ...

she made three cuts in 8 starts. She joined the

Symetra 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 ...

in 2018, where she recorded three top-10 finishes including a victory at the IOA Invitational in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, to finish 17th in the ranking. Parra made her

U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open is one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, ...

debut in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

after sharing medalist honors with compatriot

Azahara Muñoz Azahara Muñoz Guijarro (born 19 November 1987) is a Spanish professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour. Amateur career Muñoz was born in Málaga, Andalusia in southern Spain and had a successful amateur career in ...

at the Banyan Cay Resort & Country Club qualifier. She made the cut and finished T35.

Amateur wins

*2013 North of England U16 *2015

, Campeonato Absoluto C Valenciana Source:

Professional wins (3)

Symetra Tour (1)

LET Access Series (2)

Results in LPGA majors

''Results not in chronological order'' CUT = missed the half-way cut
NT = no tournament
T = tied

Team appearances

Amateur * Junior Solheim Cup (representing Europe): 2015 *

(representing Spain): 2014, 2015 (winners) *

(representing Spain):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* Toyota Junior Golf World Cup (representing Spain): 2016 *

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 ...

(representing Spain):

(representing Europe): 2016 Source:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parra, María Spanish female golfers Ladies European Tour golfers LPGA Tour golfers Sportspeople from Cádiz 1997 births Living people 21st-century Spanish people 21st-century Spanish sportswomen