Sophomore Ingrid Lindblad hoisted the lowest individual trophy for the third time in her collegiate career on Sunday. Lindblad tied a school record in Round One and went wire to wire to bring the hardware back to Baton Rouge.
The women’s team traveled to Athens, Georgia for the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic for the second time this season. The squad finished the fall portion of their schedule in Athens and placed tenth. Destined to improve under leadership of Coach Garrett Runion, the Tigers rallied over the weekend and placed seventh.
“With cold temperatures and high winds, we struggled at the start of our second and third round but rallied both days on the back nine to pick up some key wins over some good teams,” said Runion.
The No. 4 LSU team overpowered an impressive list of ranked teams, finishing ahead of No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 Georgia, No. 19 Alabama, No. 22 Florida, No. 26 Vanderbilt, No. 36 Tennessee and No. 37 Louisville.
Lindblad’s win was not in the bag the entire tournament, although she led the field after each round. During the third round, after slipping a little in Round Two, Ana Pelaez of University of South Carolina was tightening the margin. However, Lindblad did not back down. She rolled in birdies on the holes 17 and 18 to give her a two-stroke cushion. 
Lindblad is positioned as the No. 4 amateur golfer in the world. On Monday afternoon, Golfweek named Lindblad as the Women’s Player of the Week. She is also on the ANNIKA award watchlist and is traveling back to Georgia in two weeks to be the first LSU Tiger to compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Iggy, a nickname Lindblad has acquired in her time in Louisiana, is having a breakthrough season. She has finished in the top-10 at each tournament — as a sophomore. On Friday’s first round she shot a course record and tied the school’s record for single low round score, 64, 8-under. To include the old cliché, the best is yet to come.
“Very excited for Ingrid, as she played extremely well, earning her third individual win,” said Runion. “It was jump-started by her collegiate career low and women’s tournament course record of 8-under 64 that was very impressive.”
The native of Halmstad, Sweden will compete at the Augusta National on March 31-April 3 and then return to Baton Rouge for the LSU Tiger Golf Classic on April 6 and 7 at the University Club, where the world of college will be stunned. This will be the team’s first home event of the season and their final competition of their spring portion of the schedule.
“Next we host our home tournament, which we have been looking forward to,” said Runion. “[The team] will be motivated to show off University Club and play our best.”
Although the men’s team struggled to present a case for home-field advantage, finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard at their tournament, the women’s will have a crack at it soon. As the schedule stands now, NCAA Regionals are slated to be in Baton Rouge at the University Club as well. This favorable alignment of the schedule and the mixture of the team’s top talent performing well, a national championship is in the crosshairs.