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Karen was born Nov. 10th in Ballymoney, County Antrim, N. Ireland and lived near Maghera, County Derry. At the age of 8, her parents moved to England where she eventually joined a club and began her career in snooker at the age of 14.
Karen was 15 when she entered her first woman's event in Leicester, England. In 1990, she won her first World Snooker Championship and she continued on to win additional World titles in '91, '95, and '97.
In June of 1998, Karen moved to the U.S. and began playing pool. She was curious to see how she would do at pool. After winning 10 qualifying events in a row, she was able to enter WPBA pro events.
By the end of 1998, Karen was ranked # 24. At the end of 1999, she soared through the rankings, all the way to # 4. By the end of 2000, she was ranked 2nd in the world.
Karen won her first WPBA Classic Tour title, "The 2000 Cuetec Cues Players Championship" in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She completed that year with two more Classic tour titles. She also won the "All Japan Open Championship" held in Osaka, Japan. She placed second in the "WPA Women's World Championship" and in the "UCC World Ladies Championship" held in Tokyo, Japan.
In 2001, Karen became the first person to win all 6 WPBA Classic tour events since they began. She won the silver medal at the World Games and placed 2nd at the World Championships. Before 2001 ended, Karen found herself at the top, the No. 1 ranked player in the World and remained there for 2 years.
Karen continued her form in 2002 by winning three ranking events and placed in the top three in all other events to maintain her #1 ranking.
2003 was a great year winning the Joss North East 9-Ball men's tour event. She is the only woman to win an event on the Joss Tour. She defended her BCA event in May and won the US Open in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Canadian Classic. Karen was part of the European team that won the World Team event in Taiwan.
In 2004, Karen had consistent top finishes winning the BCA Championship for the third year in a row and went on to complete the year with a win in the Nationals in Oregon.
2005 was a dryer year with one event win in Florida at the Hard Rock Casino and second place finish in the BCA trying to win it for the fourth year in a row and a second place finish at the US Open in New Mexico.
Karen made 2006 a brilliant year with 3 WPBA wins and her first win in the Tournament of Champions. She was one of the hottest players on the WPBA tour, winning the first event in North Carolina, a second place finish at the Viejas Casino in San Diego, a second win at the Florida Classic, and a third win at the Midwest Classic.
2007 got off to a slow start, but picked up momentum in May when Karen won The EnjoyPool.com championship. She then won the New Jersey State Championship in July and has been a dominant force on the 2007 Joss Northeast Tour. In August, she finished 5th at the Turning Stone Classic IX in Verona, NY.
In October, Karen successfully defended her WPBA Midwest Classic title. Karen successfully defended her Tournament of Champions title in November.
The WPBA season got off to a late start in 2008 due to a schedule change for the Carolina Classic.
In the meantime, Karen played well at Turning Stone IX and won the Joss Northeast Tour stop in Providence while finishing 3rd-4th twice in San Diego and Michigan City as the WPBA season got underway in April. The big highlight of the year was a sudden-death victory in the Tournament of Champions over Ga Young Kim. She also opened a new chapter in her life with a move to Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
The move to Tennessee is proving to be a smart one; 2009 saw Karen participating a many more local tournaments than before. In May, Karen finished 2nd in the Amway Cup. After a few weeks home, she was off to Asia
for a 5th place showing at the World 10-all Championship in the Phillipines.
She then went to the China Open and finished 2nd, losing a close 8-9 final. In June, she finished 3rd in the Great Lakes Classic when she lost to eventual champion Jasmin Ouschan.
Not to be outdone, she won the Borderline Billiards Satelite Tour stop in July. In August, she finished 2nd to Ga Young Kim at the US Open in Oklahoma. She finished in the top 8 in the 3 remaining WPBA tournaments, caping the year off with a definitive 2nd place finish at the WPA World Championship in China.
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