Ingrid Lindblad takes low amateur honors at U.S. Women's Open

05 Jun 2022
by Kent Paisley of AmateurGolf.com
see also: U.S. Women's Open, a USGA Championship, Erin Hills Golf Course, Ingrid Lindblad Rankings
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Credit: USGA

LSU junior Ingrid Lindblad survived a challenging Sunday at Southern Pines to earn low am honors at one-under par, a T11 finish, for the 77th U.S. Women’s Open.

"I was very impressed by my own short putting," Lindblad said, "especially the first three days. I saw yesterday I was the only player in the field who hadn't missed a putt under like 10 feet. I missed a few today."

On a course that played nearly three strokes harder from the third to the fourth round, Lindblad posted a five-over 76, tying for 11th. In how difficult the conditions were, Lindblad hit the first 12 greens in regulation yet sat three-over-par for her round to that point. After a double-bogey on the 14th, the Swede responded with a key birdie on the par-5 15th to move back into the top-10. A bogey on the par-4 17th pushed Lindblad out of the top-10, narrowly missing an automatic bid into the 2023 U.S. Women's Open.

"I heard they were talking about it at breakfast," Lindblad said, "like top 10 gets an invite to next year. I think I'm missing out by like one shot. It sucks, but it was a good week."

Lindblad's caddie this week was Sophie Gustafson, a five-time winner on the LPGA Tour who played in 15 U.S. Women's Opens in her career, including a T11 at Pine Needles in 2001.

"She has an ability to only remember and focus on the good," Gustafson said of Ingrid's mental strength, "and I mean, we golfers, we don't do that. If we come back from a round and we hit three bad shots and three really, really good ones, we're going to talk about the bad ones. She doesn't. She goes, 'I had the perfect one,' and I go, 'you did,' it's like blinders."

2022 NCAA Individual Champion Rose Zhang beat the field average Sunday with a two-over 73 to finish tied for 41st for the week at eight-over par. Bailey Shoemaker and Saki Baba posted nine-under par for the week, good for T49.

Minjee Lee, winner of the 2012 U.S. Girls' Junior, won the tournament at 14-under par. Her raw score of 270 is a new record in U.S. Women's Open history, taking down Juli Inkster (1999), Annika Sorenstam (1996) and In Gee Chun (2015)'s mark of 272 for Lee's second major championship.

ABOUT THE U.S. Women's Open

The U.S. Women's Open has the biggest payout in women's golf. It is one of 15 annual championships conducted by the USGA. The event is open to any professional or amateur female golfer. There is a handicap limit for amateurs; for the 2024 event it was 4.4; please see USGA website for the current limit and entry requirements.