I grew up doing figure skating. A dynamic sport of balance and precision tested her limits before she finally surrendered the ice for full-time green.
Personality has driven Swedish golfers to be the best of their opponents and not their opponents to achieve your goals, driving them to the top amateur positions of Louisiana. As one of the two LPGA rookies on Sunday afternoon, Lindblad had to guide her success. This made her the 2024 Honda Award winner for Golf.
Lindblad, 25, converted six birdies on Sunday. He weathered the field and won the LA Championship at Tarzana’s El Caballero Country Club. Lindblad, who missed the top 10 in his first two starts, took part in the conversation on Friday and placed him in career low 63 to score a tournament scoring record. She booked the second round with a 4-under performance in the first and third rounds.
Lindblad didn’t know her first victory until the camera flocked her with nervous snacks in front of the clubhouse. Her shocked expression turned to joy as her mother, Cecilia and her companions celebrated her milestone moment.
Sunday’s finale was not in her hands. Fellow rookie Akki Yiwai missed a 13-foot putt on the 18th hole and would have forced the playoffs after tying a 16-hole birdie and a score of 21 under.
“We’re going to make chips and putts, hoping the other party will make them,” Lindblad said. “She played really well this week too. I was hoping she would make it.”
Iwai, who played alongside her twin sister Chisato, set up a birdie putt on Saturday, curved her last chance shot from behind the tree and cut it to the lead.
“I saw Ingrid (we were there first),” said Akie Iwai, who finished 20 under as runner-up. “I need to catch up… so I’ll try it. It was a really good shot.”
Early in the round, he was tied up with Lindblad on Sunday, and tour veteran Lauren Coughlin was tied up at 17 under and stalled after a six-hole bogey.
Lindblad also lost steam for pars on all holes since the 11th. However, she found a lucky touch to keep her lead. On the 8th hole, after driving the ball into rough, Lindblad – a sand patch near the fan viewing zone – created a short putt opportunity by skipping the ball about 50 yards above the green.
She sunk the fifth birdie of the day, leaving behind a 20-under and two-stroke lead with 10 holes left.
Even if her drive remains enough for her to be desired and struggles to find fairways in multiple holes, Lindblad saves par to maintain the distance between second place. Lindblad sliced the ball on hole 13, which was much wider and sailed away from the tree.
“I’ve always been friends with the driver,” Lindblad said.
However, the ball bouncing off the tree and not taking on a boundary towards the fairway. Lindblad eventually made a par.
The 10th hole (par 4) looked like a potential bogey after Lindblad left the ball in the bunker with a lack of putting green and a second shot. However, after a clever tip, she was able to maintain par with a 15-foot putt.
It was a shot of her 10-verse sand saves and more, evidence that it could be Lindblad’s Day in Tarzana.
“I know that sand savings this year isn’t the biggest percentage of this year,” Lindblad said. “I was happy to make it up and down with both the second hole from the bunker and the ten from the bunker and I was happy to make a PAR.”
Lindblad outperformed attempts to cut from female golfers ranked in the top two to lead. World No. 1 Nelly Korda began the third tied day and finished at 14 under. Just below the ranked korda, Jeeno Thitikul ran her first four holes towards the top of the ranking with a birdie, but eventually settled in a tie for ninth place, becoming ninth.
Hanna Green from Australia, who won the past two LA Championships, also finished 9th. She donated $1,000 per Eagle and $500 per birdie for Los Angeles fire relief efforts. Green will donate $10,500 after adding six birdies to Sunday’s tally.
“Last night I tallied a bit,” Green said of her donation. “We wanted to be a course that would make tons (Eagles and Birdie) and it was obviously.
Coughlin, part of the number one tie that started Sunday, finished the LA Championship, where he placed third at the age of 19 with Esther Henseleit and Miyu Yamashita.
The LA Championship, which is normally held at the Wilshire Country Club, was of course renovated in Wilshire, so in 2025 it moved to El Caballero. The LPGA Tour is scheduled to return to Wilshire next season.
The Chevron Championship (the first LPGA Major of the Year) will be held next week, and Lindblad said it may be time to reevaluate her rookie season goals after winning her first tour. And now, in her name with a prize of $562,500, she only excluded what is in her heart.
“If I win, I’ll hit first class tomorrow,” Lindblad said he joked on Saturday. “However, there will be no seats in first class tomorrow.”
Lindblad may still be thinking about first class, but from Sunday onwards she will have to check out the extra bags of the LA Championship Silver Trophy.
