BATON ROUGE – LSU graduate student Ingrid Lindblad finished off a record-breaking golf win at the Clemson Invitational Sunday as she became the all-time women’s collegiate winner in the Southeastern Conference with the 14th championship of her distinguished career.
Lindblad, from Halmstad, Sweden, moved to the lead in the second round and didn’t let up in the final 18 holes posting rounds of 66-67-65 for a three-day total of 18-under par 198 at The Reserve at Lake Keowee in Sunset, South Carolina.
The previous win mark was 13 collegiate wins by Arkansas Razorback and LPGA star Stacy Lewis (2005-08).
In addition, Lindblad won the Clemson Invitational on this course for the third consecutive year, posting a 4-under 212 in 2022 for a solo win and co-medalist honors in 2023 with a score of 5-under 211.
Lindblad has won three times this season after entering her graduate school year with 11 collegiate victories. Two wins came in the fall semester at the Cougar Classic and the Illini Women’s Invitational.
Lindblad would win by 10 shots over Adela Cernousek of Texas A&M at 8-under 208. Anna Morgan of Furman was third at 7-under 209.
It marked the second time Lindblad was 18-under par for 54 holes, the last coming in the fall of 2022 when she won the Battle at the Beach in Mexico with an 18-under score on a par 71 course. Lindblad’s previous best on a par 72 course was 14-under 202 in winning the individual title at the SEC Championships in April 2021.
Lindblad, for the third consecutive round, had just one bogey on her scorecard to go with eight third-round birdies.
The Tigers, ranked No. 5 in the national collegiate rankings and in the women’s coaches poll, as a team finished third in the tournament on the toughest day of scoring which saw no team brake par in the final round. LSU posted a 2-over 290 on the final day to finish at 3-under par for the 54 holes at 861 (287-284-290). LSU moved up two places in the final round.
Vanderbilt won the event with a 12-over par total of 852 (280-281-291), with Texas A&M second at 6-under 858 (285-282-291). Host Clemson was fourth at even par 864 (285-281-298).
LSU also counted three 3-over 75s on the day from Latanna Stone, Carla Tejedo and Aine Donegan in its final round of the regular season.
The Tigers as a team posted 52 birdies, one off the tournament best in the 16-team field, and as a team played the par 5s in 15 under par. Lindblad had much of that as she played the par 5s in 10-under, with birdies on all four par 5s in round three after birdies on three-of-the-four in rounds one and two.
Lindblad finished with 21 birdies which led the field and also led the field on the par 4 holes at 6-under par.
“It was a dominant performance this weekend from Ingrid. A pretty cool way to end her regular season college career with a big win to break the SEC career wins record,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “Super proud of her and the way she played this weekend. Her scores, how consistently she played and how well she hit helped put us in position to compete as a team. We improved our position in today’s final round with the second lowest score of the day, so it was a consistent weekend for us. We’ll use this team finish as motivation as we head into the postseason. The real stuff begins now and we’ve got an exciting upcoming few weeks with Ingrid and Latanna playing at Augusta to start April and then the SEC Championships after that.”
Two LSU squad members. Lindblad and Stone, will next take part in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur starting on April 2 with the team to take part in the SEC Championships set for a new location in Belleair, Florida beginning on April 12.
CLEMSON INVITATIONAL
The Reserve at Lake Keowee – Sunset, South Carolina
Final Round Team Results (Par 288-864)
1 Vanderbilt 280-281-291 – 852 -12
2 Texas A&M 285-282-291 – 858 -6
3 LSU 287-284-290 – 861 -3
4 Clemson 285-281-298 – 864 E
5 Michigan State 290-284-294 – 868 +4
6 Ohio State 288-282-300 – 870 +6
7 Kentucky 290-285-296 – 871 +7
8 Ole Miss 292-293-289 – 874 +10
T9 Tennessee 301-285-90 – 876 +12
T9 Miami 291-294-291 – 876 +12
11 Furman 289-297-292 – 878 +14
12 Maryland 298-293-299 – 880 +16
13 Louisville 298-291-294 – 883 +19
14 Augusta 293-292-300 – 885 +21
15 Virginia Tech 292-295-302 – 889 +25
16 UNCW 304-291-300 – 895 +31
Top 5 Individuals (Par 72-216)
1 Ingrid Lindblad, LSU – 66-67-65 – 198 -18
2 Adela Cernousek, Texas A&M – 71-67-70 – 208 -8
3 Anna Morgan, Furman – 64-73-72 – 209 -7
4 Audrey Ryu, Furman – 72-69-70 – 211 -5
T5 Virginie Ding, Vanderbilt – 75-70-67 – 212 -4
T5 Sara Byrne, Miami – 69-73-70 – 212 -4
T5 Natacha Husted, Ole Miss – 70-71-71 – 212 -4
LSU Scores
1 Ingrid Lindblad – 66-67-65 – 198 -18
T24 Carla Tejedo – 73-70-75 – 218 +2
T40 Latanna Stone – 75-71-75 – 221 +3
T58 Taylor Riley – 73-76-76 – 225 +9
T73 Aine Donegan – 77-78-75 – 230 +14