As the sun was falling behind the green-painted hills of Sunset, South Carolina, Ingrid ‘Iggy’ Lindblad hoisted the trophy and made program history. Lindblad, a native of Halmstad, Sweden over 5,000 miles away from Baton Rouge has set an LSU record, claiming her eighth individual win of her collegiate career at the Clemson Invitational on Sunday.
After Lindblad tied former LSU golfer Jenny Lidback’s program record of seven wins at the Clover Cup two weeks ago, she promptly took the record for herself, carding a four-under par final round.
Lidback graduated in 1986 with a major in broadcast journalism and has been inducted into the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame. Lidback grew up in Lima, Peru with Swedish parents, Tommy Martty and Emily Fletcher, and became an American citizen in 2003. Lidback has played in 13 LPGA events since joining in 2003.
Juniors Lindblad and Latanna Stone both have been invited to the third playing of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, March 30 through April 2. Last year Lindblad battled a star-studded field and finished one stroke off the winner, Tsubasa Kajitani (+1), giving her a third-place finish. Stone earned her way to the sacred grounds past Magnolia Lane after she captured several top-10 finishes this fall and spring, in addition to a win at the Orlando International Amateur this past January.
LSU came into this tournament after landing third place in the Clover Cup, but the team bounced back and captured a win with a score of 27-over par, 891, behind Lindblad’s four- birdie final round. Lindblad landed her fourth individual win this season, and landed back-to-back individual wins.
The Tigers also have now won two tournaments this season, with one tournament remaining at the Auburn Invitational in early April. The Tigers claimed two total team wins last year.
While Lindblad made history, the rest of the team did well to give themselves the victory. Stone tied for eighth, giving her a third top-10 finish on the season. Jessica Bailey tied for 38th, Elsa Svensson tied for 44th, and Pressley Baggett tied for 66th.
LSU, the 18th-ranked team, came into this game after losing a game last week despite leading coming into the final round. This week, they did the opposite and climbed back into contention after tying for fourth place to begin round three in South Carolina.
Lindblad began the round at even par and tied for third place before scoring four under par and landing herself a total of 212.
LSU began the day behind Kentucky, Michigan State and Florida, but Florida and Michigan State faltered as LSU and Illinois surpassed Kentucky for the podium finish.
The Clover Cup showed the ceiling of this team; even beyond Lindblad, Stone and Carla Tejedo Mulet can go on hot streaks and put the team in a good position. Despite Tejedo Mulet not playing Sunday, Lindblad and Stone both finished top-10 and tightened up their games around the third round.
At the beginning of round three, Lindblad trailed with one shot behind the individual lead held by Annabell Fuller of Florida and Brooke Biermann of Michigan State with both at 1-under 143. By the end of the round, only Biermann had a real shot to reach Lindblad, but she fell short.
LSU came in Sunday with a shot to win, and Lindblad made sure to secure that shot. With a new program record-setter leading the way, LSU will be a force this season with Lindblad on the roster.
