Three-Time Major Champion Anna Nordqvist to Retire After FM Championship

Anna Nordqvist will retire from professional golf after this week’s FM Championship near Boston, bringing an 18-year professional career to a close. BBC Sport reported that the 39-year-old Swede has chosen the LPGA Tour event as her final tournament inside the ropes, with her announcement setting a clear endpoint to a career that included victories on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Nordqvist won three major championships in three different decades of her career. Her first came at the LPGA Championship in 2009, the same year she made her Solheim Cup debut. She later won the Evian Championship in 2017 and the Women’s Open in 2021, building a record that placed her among the leading European golfers of her generation.

Her wider tournament record includes nine LPGA Tour wins and five Ladies European Tour victories. According to BBC Sport, Nordqvist earned $14.1 million during her professional career. She has also remained competitive in major events this season, tying for seventh at the Evian Championship in July and sharing 29th place at the Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

Nordqvist’s retirement from tour competition will not end her immediate involvement at the highest level of team golf. She is due to captain Europe against the United States in the Solheim Cup at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands from September 11-13. She has played in each of the past nine editions since 2009 and helped Europe win the trophy five times.

The Swede served as a playing vice-captain at the previous two Solheim Cups, giving her recent leadership experience before taking the captaincy. Her move from competitor to captain will therefore follow an unusually extensive playing association with the event, spanning nine consecutive appearances and multiple European victories before she leads the side on home soil.

Nordqvist said in her retirement announcement that she had decided to step away in order to focus on her health and family. BBC Sport reported that she underwent surgery to remove a benign stomach cyst in the summer of 2024. She enters her final event ranked 118th in the world, closing her playing career while preparing for a major leadership assignment in September.