EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — Ingrid Lindblad hasn’t been a professional golfer for very long, but the young Swede is already proving just why she belongs among the professional ranks at The Amundi Evian Championship.
The former Louisiana State University Tiger turned professional last month and began her pro career on the Epson Tour, having earned status for the 2024 season after medaling at the second leg of the LPGA Qualifying Series last season.
She was a standout during her time at LSU with a laundry list of incredible accomplishments that include winning the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel, winning the Inkster Award presented by Workday, earning WCGA All-American honors five times, being named SEC Player of the Year three times and collecting 15 collegiate titles in her five-year career.
After finishing up her fifth and final season at LSU, Lindblad almost immediately turned her attention to professional golf, teeing it up in three events on the Epson Tour before this week’s Amundi Evian Championship.
While she missed the cut in her pro debut at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship, the 24-year-old finished in a tie for 25th in her second start as an Epson Tour member at the Otter Creek Championship and then backed that up with a T2 showing at the rain-shortened Island Resort Championship presented by Delta County Chamber.
Lindblad carded a two-day total of 7-under at Sweetgrass Golf Club that week to give herself a shot at her first professional title, but ultimately finished in a five-way tie for second in Michigan, one back of champion Soo Bin Joo.
Round 1 is off to a running start 🏃♀️💨@EpsonTour member Ingrid Lindblad cards a clean 64 to tie the clubhouse lead 🏌️♀️ pic.twitter.com/zst1HAFvag
— LPGA (@LPGA) July 11, 2024
That momentum has now seemingly carried over for Lindblad through the first round at The Amundi Evian Championship. The Swede fired a bogey-free, 7-under 64 on Thursday to kick off her tournament debut at Evian Resort Golf Club and share the 18-hole lead with Gemma Dryburgh and Patty Tavatanakit in just her eighth start ever on the LPGA Tour.
Starting on the par-4 10th hole, Lindblad didn’t make her first birdie of the round until the par-3 16th hole and quickly followed that up with another birdie on the par-5 18th hole to turn in 34 at 2-under overall. Lindblad then got on a hot streak, grabbing three consecutive birdies on holes one, two and three, now sitting at 5-under for the tournament with six holes to play.
She added a pair of back-to-back birdies on the par-4 6th and par-5 7th holes to her Thursday tally, ultimately parring out to post a 64, her lowest career round on the LPGA Tour in eight starts and a score that bested her previous benchmark of 65, which Lindblad shot on day one of the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally, by one shot.
“I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens. Wasn't really in any trouble,” said Lindblad. “The only trouble I was in, I got a bad lie in a bunker on a par 5 and literally hit a normal bunker shot out of the bunker to hit it on the fairway and then hit my 4-iron to three feet. It was maybe not the routine birdie, but I'll take it.
“I would say it was a pretty simple round of golf. I think missed two fairways, missed two greens, so was just in it the whole round. Was trying to hit the targets that we (have) been talking about.”
While Lindblad has had plenty of experience playing major championship golf – the Swede has teed it up in four AIG Women’s Opens and three U.S. Women’s Opens – few LPGA Tour events, majors or otherwise, are contested on the side of a mountain like The Amundi Evian Championship is.
It’s rare to find a lie in either the fairway or the rough that’s flat at this venue, and for someone who has had success at places like Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club and the Champions Club in Houston, Texas, playing well at Evian Resort Golf Club was going to be a different challenge for Lindblad to tackle, one that she has already appeared to have taken in stride.
“I was talking about this early in the week,” said Lindblad. “I was saying because I've only played the AIG Women's Open and U.S. Women's Open, and those greens are always rock hard. I have just played links and longer courses in the U.S., and then I come out here and everything is slopey.
“I would say the greens are a little bit more receptive than I thought they would be. They’ll probably firm up. But it's a totally different course. It's not the same as the other ones.”
But Lindblad is still very much getting her feet under her in many ways. After a solid first three weeks on the Epson Tour, The Amundi Evian Championship marks her first time competing in a major championship as a professional, and there are still a lot of learning curves that the young talent is working to navigate through, as the life of a professional golfer isn’t the easiest, particularly when you’re just starting out.
Quickly cutting her teeth on the Epson Tour has helped the 24-year-old already, however, and she is looking forward to continuing her pro golf education both on the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA and as she gets different opportunities to play around the world.
“It was my first three weeks as a professional, and then the week before that, I played the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster. It was a really long four weeks,” Lindblad reflected. “But I think overall, I learned something like every week. The hardest thing was probably the routine around the events. It's not the same as a college event or a regular amateur tournament, so just kind of getting used to it.
“On Epson, you had to show up for practice rounds, so going a little bit more with the flow, I think. Those three weeks were pretty good preparation actually to get used to things.”
Lindblad wore a bracelet on her right wrist in the first round on Thursday that reads, “Be where your feet are,” a reminder to the Swede to not get too high or too low in response to what’s going on around her, both on and off the golf course.
It’s a good motto to live by, especially for a young athlete still trying to figure things out in her first month as a pro. And with three more days of major championship golf left at this unfamiliar venue, Lindblad will continue to repeat that mantra to herself as she tries to contend for her first title as a professional at The Amundi Evian Championship.
“I said before I teed off today, just trust the process and the score will come. So that's what I did today,” said Lindblad. “Sometimes, I get too far ahead of myself and I was just like, just keep going. Keep hitting the fairways and greens, and try to roll some putts in. I think that's what you got to do. You can't really force it, especially not on a course like this. You just have to commit to the shots and don't try to force it anywhere.”
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