CARLSBAD, Calif. – Generations had been spanned Monday morning at Omni La Costa, website of this week’s NCAA Girls’s Championship. Annika Sorenstam, the World Golf Corridor of Famer, was there taping an award presentation for nationwide feminine collegiate participant of the 12 months, which bears her namesake, to her fellow Swede and fifth-year LSU senior Ingrid Lindblad.
Lindblad is the primary Swede to obtain the Annika Award introduced by Stifel, which was publicly introduced on Tuesday, in what’s now a decade of the {hardware} being handed out; Lindblad has been a finalist for half of the award’s existence.
“I’m so joyful,” Lindblad stated. “I’ve labored so exhausting for this; this is among the causes I got here again for my fifth 12 months, so it feels good to shut my faculty profession with this award.”
At that time, Lindblad’s profession wasn’t fairly over but. She arrived at La Costa this week with 15 profession victories, together with the 2022 SEC particular person title, and having completed within the high 10 in 42 of her 47 profession begins – two of these 5 non-top-10s had been T-11, too. This season, Lindblad gained 4 occasions and hadn’t completed exterior the highest 5 heading into nationals.
In fact, it hasn’t been the perfect week individually for the world’s top-ranked novice. Lindblad, who hadn’t carded worse than 72 all season, shot 9-over 81 in Saturday’s second spherical and adopted that up with a third-round 75 to take a seat exterior the highest 100 with one spherical to play. Till Saturday, Lindblad had by no means not counted for the Tigers; she didn’t rely Sunday as effectively.
Although on her ultimate 9 of Spherical 3, Lindblad discovered one thing. After breaking down in tears a number of totally different occasions within the earlier 24 hours, together with after dropping her tee shot and double-bogeying her tenth gap of the day, the par-4 first, Lindblad obtained some recommendation from her assistant, Alexis Somewhat, who informed her participant to, “Simply whack the ball!”
And so, following one other bogey at No. 2, Lindblad wrote down on a bit of scrap paper, “Whack it!” She hooked up it to her pushcart and proceeded to play her ultimate seven holes in 2 below.
LSU head coach Garrett Runion couldn’t actually clarify what occurred to his star participant, who for thus lengthy had been dominant and impervious to poor stretches, the previous two days, solely to cause the stunning efficiency was because of Lindblad, “Eager to win so badly. She’s put a whole lot of stress on herself this week.”
Lindblad returned to LSU for a fifth 12 months, bowing out after profitable final 12 months’s second stage of LPGA Q-Faculty, for an opportunity to chase extra particular person achievements, just like the Annika Award, but additionally to lastly lead the Tigers into NCAA match play and finally, a nationwide group championship.
Sadly, Lindblad, who ended up T-65 in stroke play, couldn’t accomplish the later, both. The Tigers, the No. 2 seed, fell to Oregon, 3-2, on Tuesday morning. Lindblad, nevertheless, gained her match, 4 and three.
Lindblad’s comfort: receiving the Annika Award from her childhood idol, whom she first met 10 years in the past whereas enjoying a junior-am for Sorenstam’s European junior occasion.
Since then, Lindblad has performed in a handful of Sorenstam’s tournaments, all the way in which up the novice ranks.
“I’ve form of taken the Annika journey,” Lindblad stated with a smile.
These are huge footsteps to comply with, and shortly Lindblad will take a giant leap to the professionals.
“It’s been so thrilling to comply with her journey,” Sorenstam stated of Lindblad. “I’m very proud of what she’s carried out on the course and what she stands for along with her character. To now see a Swede on there – there are some great names on this trophy, they usually have all gone on to do some nice issues. I see the identical factor for Ingrid.”
