SOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA | There’s always one.
Last year at The Olympic Club, the world was introduced to high-school junior Megha Ganne, an amateur from New Jersey who played herself into the final group on Sunday and finished as low amateur. This year, it was Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad, a rising senior at LSU who didn’t quite make it into the last pairing but went one better by making history.
Playing with Annika Sörenstam on Thursday, Lindblad not only dealt with the pressures of playing with a Swedish idol, but she did so in front of a healthy gallery that cheered for Sörenstam like the good old days.
So, how did Lindblad, who kept Sörenstam’s card that day, acquit herself? She shot 65, the lowest round ever by an amateur in the U.S. Women’s Open.
A day later, when everyone expected her to realize the size of the stage, Lindblad made one impressive par save after another, rolling in putts like a major-championship veteran, not a college kid who had to beg a professor for an extension on a project she had due. The Swedish Tiger shot 71 on Friday to set a 36-hole U.S. Women’s Open record for an amateur.
On Saturday, another even-par 71 put Lindblad out late on Sunday while also setting yet another scoring record for an amateur in the Women’s Open. And while the odds of her making a run at Minjee Lee were slim, everyone who watched Lindblad pound drive after drive and roll in 10-footers like tap-ins realized that the No. 2-ranked woman in the World Amateur Golf Rankings could be showing up on leaderboards for some time.
Her success was not a fluke ... Lindblad won the Southeastern Conference individual title in April and tied for third in the NCAA Women’s Championship
“I think playing with Annika was really cool,” Lindblad said when asked to sum up her most memorable moments of the week. “The first two rounds, it was like, ‘Go, Annika!’ And then people kind of started saying, ‘Go, Ingrid!’ instead, which I thought was kind of cool. Like, everyone is cheering you on. Maybe not (people who are) related to Minjee Lee, but everyone is cheering for you. And the people out here have been amazing, like they're screaming, ‘Go, Tigers!’ and ‘Go, Ingrid!’ and like ‘Great job this week!’ and everything. It's been really fun.”
Her success was not a fluke, nor was her performance an accident. Lindblad won the Southeastern Conference individual title in April and tied for third in the NCAA Women’s Championship. Onsite at Southern Pines, she had the Swedish national coach in her gallery and former major champion Sophie Gustafson, an LPGA Tour veteran, by her side as her caddie for the week.
Still, after 60 holes, Lindblad ran out of gas. On the seventh hole on Sunday, she missed her first putt inside 10 feet for the week (the only player in the field to go that long without a miss from that distance). It was followed by several other shortish misses and a 5-over par 76 to drop her just out of the top 10.
“It's a long week,” Lindblad said afterward. “We don't play a lot of 72-hole tournaments (in college golf). Most of them are 54 holes, and they're usually 36 (one day), 18 (the next) or 18-18-18. Not really used to it. Like, I do play 72-hole tournaments, but it's nothing we do a lot. So, I was a little tired going into today.”
Still, Lindblad finished low amateur, an accomplishment that had her beaming as the sun set Sunday on the Sandhills. Now she’s off to Sweden to play in an event hosted by Sörenstam and Henrik Stenson. “I'm flying home and playing Scandinavian Mixed,” she said. “It's five minutes from where I live. I got an invite in March, so I've known it for a while. It's European Tour and Ladies European Tour hosting it, so I'm excited.”
No word on when the school assignment is now due.
Steve Eubanks