José-Filipe Lima

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

José-Filipe Lima (born 26 November 1981) is a professional golfer. He has a French father and a Portuguese mother and grew up mainly in France. His father worked at Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, which was the host course of the Trophée Lancôme until that tournament ceased in 2003, and was his son's first coach. Up until 2004 Lima represented France (as Philippe Lima) but he then adopted his mother's nationality, began to use the Portuguese form of his name professionally, and represented Portugal in that year's WGC-World Cup.

Lima was the top ranked French amateur at the end of 2001 and turned professional the following year. In 2003 he was the fourth ranked player on the third-level Alps Tour, which qualified him to move up to the main developmental tour in Europe, the Challenge Tour, 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/European Tour co-sanctioned Aa St Omer Open, which won him promotion to the European Tour. He played steadily in his first two full seasons on the European Tour in 2005 and 2006 and retained his tour card for 2007.