LSU Gold

Lindblad Opens With 70; Tigers +6 After One Round at NCAA Championships

Ingrid Lindblad fired an opening round of 2-under 70.

by Kent Lowe
Round 1 Photos +0
Lindblad Opens With 70; Tigers +6 After One Round at NCAA Championships

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – For the fourth time in the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, LSU senior Ingrid Lindblad fired a 2-under par 70, this time on the opening day of the 2023 NCAA Women’s Championship at the Grayhawk Golf Club’s Raptor Course.

Lindblad previously shot 70 in the 2021 event and 70 in the second and fourth rounds of the 2022 event.

Lindblad, from Halmstad, Sweden, is in a group tied for 10th in what turned out to be a lower scoring opening round than many expected. The lead is held by Maddison Hinson-Tolchard of Oklahoma State at 6-under par 66. Wake Forest’s Lauren Walsh is second at 5-under 67.

Lindblad opens with a bogey on her first hole, the 10th, and then responded with birdies on the 11th, 12th, 14th and 18th holes, turning in 3-under 33. She had three bogeys over the final nine holes but got two of them back with birdies to play the front nine at 1-over 37 for the round of 70.

“Two under out here is a good score,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion of Lindblad’s opening round. “She was playing well. She drove it well and that allowed her to be on offense and go for a lot of pins.”

In all, 37 players were under par in the opening round on the par 72 course.

As a team, LSU was two strokes better than its start the last two years in Scottsdale but the overall numbers for the field were much lower than the last two years. The Tigers are at 6-over 294 after the first round but just two shots out of the 15-team cut that takes place after 54 holes.

“We played the back nine fine and turned and we stumbled a little bit (on the front side). Carla (Tejedo) birdied four of her last seven holes and then we got three birdies on seven that helped keep us going,” said Coach Runion.

Tejedo played the last seven holes in 3-under par with birdies at three, six, seven and eight. Lindblad and Stone also birdied the par 5 seventh coming in.

“Our focus as a team was that we wanted to play the par 5s under par and we did not play the par 5s well as a team. We had a number of three putts that can be costly in a championship like this. We have to be out here first thing in the morning so we are going to get some food, get some rest and be back out here. The morning seems to be a little bit more gettable. A little softer condition, so hopefully we can play well in the morning and be right there in position. It was just the first quarter.”

With the first round nearing its conclusion, the Tigers played the par four holes (all five players) at +4, but its strength of a year ago, the par 3s, LSU was also +4 and +4 on the par 5s. LSU had 16 birdies on the round but just 51 pars.

Lindblad played the par 4s at 1-under and the par 5s at 2-under par.

Tejedo and Stone both came in with 1-over 73s on the day, while Aine Donegan and Alden Wallace both checked in with 6-over 78s.

The team leader after 18 holes is Wake Forest, the No. 2 team in college golf, with a 9-under score of 279. That was one shot better than No. 24 Oklahoma State at 8-under 280. It was six shots back to No. 28 Georgia and No. 4 South Carolina at 2-under par 286 and No. 39 New Mexico and No. 8 Texas A&M both shot 1-under par 287, putting six teams under par for the opening day.

The first cut spot that will come after Sunday’s third round is presently a tie for 13th between Texas, San Jose State and Arizona at 4-over par 292. LSU is in solo 18th place at its 6-over 294.

The Tigers will again be paired with Stanford and Wake Forest in the second round in the first wave off the first tee Saturday at 6:10 a.m. local time (8:10 a.m. Baton Rouge time). The 15 teams that played in the afternoon Friday will play in the morning and the teams that teed off first in the opening round will play second on Saturday.

The field will be repaired by score for the third round on Sunday.

Live scoring can be found at Golfstat.com and updates and comments on the round during the day on Twitter @LSUwomensgolf and @LSUKent.

NCAA WOMEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
Grayhawk Golf Course – Raptor Course
Scottsdale, Arizona
First Round Team Results (Par 288)
1 Wake Forest 279 -9
2 Oklahoma State 280 -8
3 Georgia 286 -2
3 South Carolina 286 -2
5 Texas A&M 287 -1
5 New Mexico 287 -1
7 Duke 288 E
7 Florida State 288 E
7 Stanford 288 E
10 Baylor 289 +1
11 SMU 291 +3
11 Texas Tech 291 +3
13 Texas 292 +4
13 San Jose State 292 +4
13 Arizona 292 +4
16 Michigan State 293 +5
16 TCU 293 +5
18 LSU 294 +6
19 Pepperdine 295 +7
20 Augusta 296 +8
20 Southern California 296 +8
22 Oregon State 297 +9
23 Virginia 298 +10
24 Clemson 299 +11
25 Ole Miss 300 +12
26 Mississippi State 301 +13
26 Tulsa 301 +13
28 Northwestern 303 +15
29 Vanderbilt 305 +17
29 North Carolina State 307 +17

Individual Top 5 (Par 72)
1 Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, Oklahoma State, 66 -6
2 Lauren Walsh, Wake Forest, 67 -5
3 Shannon Tan, Texas Tech, 68 -4
3 Megha Ganne, Stanford, 68 -4
3 Rina Tatematsu, Oklahoma State, 68 -4

LSU Scores
T10 Ingrid Lindblad 70 -2
T51 Latanna Stone 73 +1
T51 Carla Tejedo 73 +1
T127 Aine Donegan 78 +6
T127 Alden Wallace 78 +6