Everything Came Together for Lindstrom

By: D. Scott Fritchen

A few hours after Alex Lindstrom and his teammates on a Kansas State men's golf team that finished second place in the Git-R-Done Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska, arrived back in Manhattan following their successful tournament, they discovered the Ahearn Fund Student-Athlete Performance Table at Bill Snyder Family Stadium was serving tacos to celebrate "Taco Tuesday."

Lindstrom, a native of Halmstad, Sweden, has taken a liking to Taco Tuesday since he first stepped foot at K-State prior to his sophomore season in 2023. However, on this particular evening, Lindstrom, the 22-year-old senior, his head still buzzing, heart racing, already had plenty to stomach, as he sat there at the cafeteria table attempting to fully digest the enormity of his feat conquered at the par-71, 7,077-yard Firethorn Golf Club.

First, Lindstrom posted a first-round score of 8-under par 63 on Monday. Only one K-State men's golfer in history had shot a better round — Don Bishop shot a 62 in 1948. Then Lindstrom went 2-under par 69 in the afternoon to take a two-shot advantage on the individual leaderboard at 10-under par 132.

Second, Lindstrom on Tuesday put the finishing touches on the fifth-best 54-hole score in K-State history — a 13-under par 200 — to earn individual co-champion honors while capturing the first Division I win of his career.

Third, Lindstrom led a talented K-State team to a second-place tournament finish with a final-round score of 5-under par 279 to produce a 54-hole score of 12-under par 840, which tied for the 15^th-best three-round total in school history. That gave K-State a top-five finish in each of its first three events for the first time since 2022.

"I don't know if I've really grasped how big it actually is," Lindstrom says into his phone shortly after dinner. "Maybe if I think about it all for a couple days, it'll set it more and more. Everything was going my way in the first round. The driver was going straight, the wedges all went to the pins, and it was so nice to see every putt falling. It was my lowest tournament round ever. It's so cool to actually have my name in the history books in K-State men's golf now.

"Everything just came together."

For Lindstrom, the seat at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the tournament on Tuesday served an important step in the progress of three-year letterwinner who fancies himself as a leader for the Wildcats this season. In the season-opening Wildcat Invitational, Lindstrom lamented how he shot a 1-under par in the first round but finished the final round with a 2-over par score. Still, he tied for 10^th place in the tournament. Then, at The Wohali in Coalville, Utah, Lindstrom finished at 8-over par 221 to tie for 34^th place. He was unable to carry the momentum that saw him in the top 10 after the first two rounds, as he posted a final-round total of 7-over par 78.

"I'd been playing well in the tournaments, but I just hadn't been able to close it out on the last day," Lindstrom says. "This time, I stayed in the process and kept myself as calm as possible. It felt so good to finally be able to put up a good third-round score after starting the first two rounds really well.

"Before, in the other tournaments, I'd become tense and the movements in my golf swing were choppy. My main focus was to stay calm and maintain a loose feeling."

There are moments that Lindstrom might always recall from the best tournament of his college career to this point. He'll remember how he was in the final group on Tuesday, and how he glanced at the leaderboard after the first nine holes, and how he was battling it out with another golfer in his group. He'll remember the final hole, and how he two-putted to capture a share of the tournament title. He'll remember how his K-State teammates gathered near the green and celebrated as his ball fell into the hole. But among the memorable moments, he might remember a putt that he sank in the first round during his historic round.

"I made the birdie from 18 feet to shoot 8-under," he says. "That was the best feeling for the whole tournament."

This is what Lindstrom envisioned would happen someday when he mulled over the opportunity to take his golf game to a college in the United States. He heard from his older friends around Halmstad about how cool it was to play golf in the United States and how much fun it was to be in college. Lindstrom, who began hitting the driving range with his father at age 4, spent his youth working to take his game to another level.

Turns out Hutchinson Community College gave him that chance. And Lindstrom made an instant statement. He won the 2023 NJCAA Division I Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award and was a First Team PING All-American, collecting five top-10 finishes, including victories in consecutive KJCCC events that culminated in a conference championship. He finished the year ranked No. 7 in the NJCAA and was the highest-ranked freshman as he also earned a spot on the NJCAA All-Freshman Team.

"I didn't have that great of accomplishments coming out of high school, so I knew getting some results would be a really good steppingstone toward going to a Power 4 school," he says. "We played in some Division I and Division II tournaments at Hutchinson, which allowed me to show off myself and get the results to take the next step."

Lindstrom, aside from attending classes and going to practices and traveling to tournaments, fired off e-mails to head coaches at Power 4 programs.

"The K-State coaches contacted me with interest and talked about Manhattan, and it sounded really awesome," Lindstrom says. "I fell in love with everything. Then they told me I could come to K-State after my freshman year."

Boom.

Lindstrom's introduction to K-State men's golf came when he finished in second place in the season-opening 2023 Wildcat Invitational when he carded a 10-under par 206, which tied for the 23^rd-lowest individual 54-hole score in school history. He recorded a 73.19 scoring average while playing 11 events as a regular member of the scoring lineup and had 11 rounds of even- or under-par golf.

Last season, he competed in five events, including three in the scoring lineup to conclude the regular season. He had a 74.25 scoring average with a pair of top-20 finishes.

"I never give up and always keep going," Lindstrom says. "I do the right thing. I make progress every single day. That's what I try to do."

Hard work is paying off.

In Tuesday's final round en route to a share of the tournament's individual title, Lindstrom produced five birdies, and he tied for first in the 66-man field with 18 birdies over three rounds in addition to ranking first with a 3.73 scoring average on the par 4s.

"Right now, my putter is very hot," he says. "I made a lot of putts all tournament."

He'll look to keep it going while K-State seeks another top-five tournament finish at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, which begins on Monday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. K-State will then play in the Steelwood Collegiate in Loxley, Alabama, on October 25 and 26 to wrap up the fall season.

"Right now, we're going to play a little better field with some better schools," Lindstrom says. "I'm really, really excited to go out and show off my good game that I have going right now. We'll see how far that takes me down in Arkansas.

"I love this team. It's very awesome. I hope to be that guy that everyone can depend on this year. I hope to be that guy."

On Tuesday, he was the champion.

He was definitely that guy.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Alex Lindstrom

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