THE MODERATOR: All right, hello and welcome to the media center at The Chevron Championship. I'm joined by our most recent LPGA Tour winner, Ingrid Lindblad.
Ingrid, it's been a busy couple days for you. Picked up your first win at JM Eagle LA Championship. Just talk about the past couple days and what it's been like.
INGRID LINDBLAD: It's been a lot happening since Sunday night. I don't think we got back to the hotel until 9:00 p.m. Sunday night, so barely had any dinner. Kind of just went to bed, went to the airport, flew over here.
Madelene told me not to pick up a golf club yesterday, and just came out here and did my registration and picked up my car and started Tuesday.
Q. And you mentioned you had a really great night of sleep the other night. Was it just the feeling of relief that you did it or what do you think it was?
INGRID LINDBLAD: I mean, I was so tired after Sunday and traveling yesterday, so I just slept a lot last night. Woke up and my WHOOP said I had a 97% recovery, so...
Q. You're making your debut at The Chevron Championship this week. What are you looking forward to most about being here?
INGRID LINDBLAD: Oh, I mean, it's exciting coming out for a major after a win, so obviously you want to keep riding that wave of playing well.
But new week, new golf course. But I haven't seen it yet, but I'm excited to get out there.
Q. You and fellow Swede Ludvig Åberg simultaneously held the No. 1 spot in the amateur rankings in 2023. Ludvig won his second TOUR event earlier this year, and you got your first in your third start last week. Can you pinpoint as far as your roots to Sweden, why you two have had so much success early on?
INGRID LINDBLAD: I think we have a good kind of junior program, so even if you aren't on a National Team you can still -- they invite people to go to tournaments with the National Team even if you don't have a place in the group or the squad.
So I think they're very good at including everyone even if you aren't the absolute greatest when you're 15 or 16. We know that the best player when you're 15 or 16 might not be the best when you come out on Tour, come to college.
They do a really good job seeing everyone, giving more people than just a couple an opportunity to play certain tournaments. I think that's a good deal.
And then we still have a couple coaches come out every now and then out to LPGA. I don't know how much they do it on PGA TOUR but they still do it for us on the LPGA, so that's really nice of them.
Q. Your driving is a major strength of your game. You're 12th in strokes gained driving. After seeing the Nicklaus Course, I don't know how many holes you've played, but how much -- that driver, is it a major advantage here?
INGRID LINDBLAD6: I haven't seen a single golf hole on this course, so do not know yet. I hit driver on every single hole last week. Just didn't feel like hitting anything else. Just felt like it was an aggressive play.
Q. (Regarding Madelene.) Has she been a mentor to you throughout your career with the LSU connection?
INGRID LINDBLAD: To be honest we've never talked that much. We still -- it's the same assistant coach as Madelene had at LSU who is still there. I'm still staying at her house.
So I mean, Madelene was one of the reasons I went to LSU. We heard that a couple of Swedes had gone through and had some success playing at LSU, so I think Madelene is probably the most recent Swede and the most recent, recent -- yeah, the most -- what is it called, you know, one of the reasons I went to LSU.
So kind of cool to see her behind the 18th green on Sunday waiting for me.
Q. I know you put a lot of premium on managing expectations. When you turned professional last year and started playing on the Epson Tour, to live up to those expectations is always a challenge. You've done so. Got a win on the Epson and obviously already won on the LPGA? For you, how do you manage expectations and how do you block out that outside noise and focus on what you do on the golf course?
INGRID LINDBLAD: I think -- I don't know if I have a strategy for it, but trying to take one day at a time. I think I said it on Friday or Saturday last week. Obviously I can't win a tournament on the first tee box. If you're hitting balls on the driving range you got to be on the driving range, and when you're playing hole 1 you got to be on hole 1.
You can't think of what's going to happen on Sunday or if you're going to make the cut or win. You can't think that way.
Q. Obviously have had some past success in other major championships. Will you lean on that? What will take from those really solid experiences as you look ahead to a new major, a new golf course, a whole new deal being a member now?
INGRID LINDBLAD: That's a good question. I'm thinking back at the U.S. Open in 2022. Obviously I was an amateur back then so I wasn't thinking too much about the purse, the money, you know, which I think -- I don't really know what to answer, but obviously like just got to keep trying to play my own game and do whatever I can to play well out there.
Q. What's the coolest thing that's happened in the last couple days since winning?
INGRID LINDBLAD: Oh.
Q. Did you get a cool text message? Were you recognized in the airport? Anything like that?
INGRID LINDBLAD: Well, I had like a couple -- like Annika sent me a DM on Instagram. Suzann Pettersen sent me congrats. Couple of bigger names in my opinion that kind of congratulated me. Pretty cool. Your name is out there. You're not a total stranger.
Otherwise I went up -- I'm supposed to pay for one bag when I fly Delta. They waived my baggage fee and I'm like, all right. But I don't know if that was me or they did something wrong, but... (laughter.)
Q. That's great. Tell me about LSU. Why did you end up staying there five years and how did LSU help prepare you?
INGRID LINDBLAD: I loved it. I loved LSU. I didn't want to leave. It's great in college. Everything is paid for. You go to tournaments, they tell you where to be, what to bring.
Then we were talking a lot with the Swedish team how usually when you turn pro you don't -- like you don't have as much time to practice, so it's like your development kind of stops because you don't have the same of time in between tournaments to get better.
So I was just trying to be as good as I could when I left LSU. I was happy I stayed five years. I think a lot of the people were surprised I did.
Q. Who is your favorite athlete to come out of LSU? Could be before your time, whenever.
INGRID LINDBLAD: I mean, I was on campus with a couple of really big names. Love watching LSU gymnastics. Haleigh Bryant is pretty good at what she does. I'm sad to see her time at LSU is over. Watching them during the weekends, I've done it both at LSU live in person and on TV.
What they do is pretty amazing. Being on campus with Joe Burrow was pretty cool, too.
Q. Sometimes people think of rookie and might have a negative connotation. Obviously rookies have done so well on Tour this year so far. When you hear rookie or when somebody calls you a rookie, what are your thoughts?
INGRID LINDBLAD: I haven't thought much about it, but obviously rookie sounds like a little bit like oh, you're new here. Kind of like oh, this is your year to like get your feet wet, but I feel like what we've done as rookies this year, we've played really to get here. Now we play well here.
So I don't know if I like the name, you know, the term rookie or not.
Q. Congratulations on your big win.
INGRID LINDBLAD: Thank you.
Q. Now, you mentioned you haven't seen the course, haven't hit a golf ball on it yet. You're at a little disadvantage there, but you're riding the wave of playing well and that's always a good thing. For today and tomorrow, when you're playing out there, what are you looking at as far as the golf course and how are you evaluating it?
INGRID LINDBLAD: Feel like the basic things for me is kind of get the lines off the tee, trying to see if there are any areas around the green that, oh, you can't be here if they put the pin here. You know, it's not possible to make an up and down there.
So kind of just lines off the tee and get a feel for the greens and see if there are any areas around the green you need to practice more or less.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Ingrid.
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