LSU Golfer Lindblad Wins For 12th Time; Tigers Finish Second In Season Opener
The Tigers with their Cougar Classic hardware for Ingrid Lindblad's title and team's second place finish. Photo courtesy of College of Charleston athletics.
BATON ROUGE — LSU graduate student Ingrid Lindblad scored her 12th collegiate victory on Tuesday, tying for medalist honors at the season opening Cougar Classic at Yeamans Hall Club in Hanahan, South Carolina.
The LSU team shot its second lowest 54-hole total in finishing second to Ole Miss in the 54-hole event which finished its second round (halted by rain on Monday) along with its scheduled final round.
Lindblad finished that second round with a school record tying 64, the fifth time in her LSU career she has posted that number in a single round. Lindblad also shot below 200 in aggregate score for the second time in her LSU career, posting rounds of 67-64-66 to finish at 16-under par 197.
Lindblad had previously shot 64 twice in the spring 2022 season and twice in the fall 2022 season. Latanna Stone and Megan McChrystal are the two other LSU golfers to post rounds of 64 in competition.
Lindblad shared the title with Savannah Grewal of Clemson who had rounds of 68-63-66.
Lindblad had 19 birdies in the competition, one off the tourney best 20 that Grewal scored. LSU’s Swedish star, who is ranked No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, played the par four holes in 9-under par and the par 5s in 5 under.
The Tigers as a team posted rounds of 274-271-276 to finish at 821 over, 31-under par, five shots back of winner Ole Miss (36-under 816). The 271 second round was one-shot off the school’s all-time single round best and the 821 is the second best 54-hole total in school history.
LSU finished one shot better than Clemson at 30-under par 822 with UCF in fourth at -23 829 and Kentucky in fifth at 832.
In all, eight teams in the field of 17 broke par in the low-scoring event on the par 71, 6,269-yard layout.
“It was a good way to start the season off,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “If you had told me we would shoot 31-under par, three rounds under par, three rounds in the 270s, I would have taken it. Sometimes the shootout ones are harder to win than the hang-on type tournaments. But we played very well. Ingrid played very well with her fifth 64 of her college career, which is pretty incredible. Aine (Donegan) also played well with a solid top 10.
“All-in-all, a great way to start the season off. It keeps us motivated and hungry for the next event at Vanderbilt. The fact that we were 11-under on par 3s was pretty amazing and played the par 4s under par as well. There is a lot to build on from this event.”
LSU was a tournament best on the par 3 holes and was T3 in par 4 scoring. LSU had 53 birdies total for the event, fourth in the 17-team field.
Donegan, entering her second year at LSU, posted a three-round total of 8-under 205 with consistent scores of 68-69-68. The Irish golfer had 11 birdies including a clean two-birdie card in the second round.
Latanna Stone from Riverview, Florida finished in a tie for 15th place at 5-under par 208 off of rounds of 70-67-71. Stone also had a clean card in the second round with her four birdies.
LSU also had a good opening tournament from sophomore Taylor Riley at 2-over 215 after rounds of 69-73-73 (Riley led the field on the par 3s at 5-under) and senior Carla Tejedo steadied after an opening 76 with even par rounds of 71-71 to finish at 5-over 218.
The Tigers, preseason ranked 1, 3 and 4 in the three major polls, will be back in action, September 22-24, at the Mason Rudolph Championship at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee.
Cougar Classic
Hanahan, South Carolina
Final Team Results (Par 284-852)
1 Ole Miss 275-270-271 – 816 -36; 2 LSU 274-271-276 – 821 -31; 3 Clemson 271-276-275 – 822 -30; 4 UCF 272-280-277 – 829 -23; 5 Kentucky 270-276-286 – 832 -20; 6 Georgia 281-275-280 – 836 -18; 7 Florida 275-282-282 – 839 -13; 8 Maryland 283-281-282 – 846 -6; 9 287-279-286 – 852 E; 10 Tennessee 284-277-292 –853 +1; 11 Michigan State 281-286-287 – 854 +2; 12 Furman 287-285-283 – 855 +3; 13 North Carolina State 278-291-287 – 856 +4; 14 College of Charleston 294-288-286 – 868 +16; 15 Illinois 295-289-88 – 872 +20; 16 Wisconsin 292-292-291 – 875 +23; 17 Penn State 294-294-288 – 876 +24.
Individual Top 5 (Par 71-213)
T1 Ingrid Lindblad 67-64-66 – 197 -16; T1 Savannah Grewal, Clemson, 68-63-66 – 197 -16; 3 Lauren Olivares, North Carolina State 60-72-68 – 200 -13; 4 Pimpisa Sisutham, UCF, 66-68-68 – 202 -11; T5 Caityn Macnab, Ole Miss, 72-66-65 – 203 -10; T5 Molly Smith, UCF, 69-69-65 – 203 -10; Justine Fournand, Ole Miss, 67-68-68 – 203 -10
LSU Scores
T1 Ingrid Lindblad 67-64-66 – 197 -16
T9 Aine Donegan 68-69-68 – 205 -8
T15 Latanna Stone 70-67-71 – 208 -5
T50 Taylor Riley 69-73-73 – 215 +2
T62 Carla Tejedo 76-71-71 – 218 +5