A second LPGA Tour rookie just won the JM Eagle LA Championship this weekend. Ingrid Lindblad earned her LPGA Tour card through placing top 10 on the Epson Tour during the 2024 season. In just her third start, she came home with the trophy.
You may recognize Lindblad’s name from our NCAA DI Women’s Golf Championship coverage last year. Lindblad played at LSU and won the coveted ANNIKA Award in 2024 – a clear winner after ranking No. 1 in the world before turning pro.
Lindblad shared her thoughts on winning: “I mean, I feel like I was just out there trying to take one hole at a time. Looked at the leaderboard a couple times and saw I was three in front at some point. I was just telling myself, just keep hitting good golf shots. Felt like I could have made a couple more birdies on the back nine but nothing really wanted to drop. I feel
like I was just trying to like be where you can’t see if you’re 5-under par or 5-over par. Just staying in the moment and – I mean, show no emotion, but sometimes it’s hard to show no emotion.”
Lindblad had set many scoring records at the JM Eagle LA Championship, one of which was the total four-day score of 267 (-21), beating Brooke Henderson’s 268 when this event was played at Wilshire Country Club in 2021. The tour is now hosting this event at El Caballero Country Club.
However, many players were close to taking Lindblad’s spot on Sunday. Akie Iwai had two eagles and several birdies to finish second at 268, and three players tied for third at 269: Olympic silver medalist Esther Henseleit, rookie Miyu Yamashita and Solheim Cup favorite Lauren Coughlin.
Hannah Green also made a splash at this event, which she was defending from the last two years. She donated $500 for every birdie and $1,000 for every eagle she made towards fire relief. She ultimately donated $10,500, saying, “Yeah I’m super happy. I did a little bit of a tally last night, and, you know, at the start of the week I didn’t really know how many birdies we were going to make, so I was hoping that it was going to be a course where we make a ton. Obviously it has been, so definitely a lot of opportunities where I could have made some more, so I’m grateful that I did make the amount that I did.”
The CME Group also offered $20,000 for any hole-in-ones throughout the season for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and both Mary Liu and last week’s winner Madelene Sagstrom made their first career aces last week.
This week, the LPGA Tour will be competing in its first major of the year, the Chevron Championship. Nelly Korda will be defending her title after her T16 finish this week in LA.
