A lifelong Hoosier

Senior Amber Lindgren had an important decision to make following her fourth birthday. She could learn golf from her father Randy, or spend the summer with her grandparents.

She chose golf.

Although Lindgren couldn’t play much golf at the age of 4, she would tag along with her father who coached the boys’ and girls’ programs at Northwestern High School in Kokomo, Ind.

“At first, I was not allowed to play with his high school team, so I would just watch in amazement and pick up their balls for them,” Lindgren said.

Becoming a Hoosier

Lindgren, a lifelong Hoosier fan, who came into the world on the day of an IU-Purdue basketball game in 1987, unexpectedly found her way onto the IU golf team and has made a significant impact.

Lindgren played in her first tournament at age 6 and received national exposure growing up playing in tournaments all over the country. In 2004 she was named Indiana Golf Tour Player of the Year.

Although many acknowledged her as the best player in the state of Indiana, the Hoosier women’s golf team, going through a coaching change at the time had not called her and almost let her go to Iowa.

Newly hired coach Clint Wallman came to IU one month after the initial start date for recruiting, and called Lindgren as soon as he could.

“Amber was at that time the best player in the state of Indiana,” he said, “and we have a commitment to try to get the best players in Indiana to come to IU.”

The day after the call Lindgren visited IU and knew she wanted to be a Hoosier.

“IU has been a dream for me growing up in this state,” she said. “I’ve always looked up to all the teams that have played here and the great players that have come from here. To get an opportunity to play here was my dream.”

Reunited with an old rival

Randy Lindgren, who now is a sixth-grade teacher at Northwestern High school and has spent 34 years in the school system, decided he wanted his daughter to have some independence, so he sent her to cross-town rival Western High School.

Randy has coached the boys’ golf team at Northwestern for 25 years and the girls’ program for nine, but stopped coaching the girls when his daughter started playing for Western.

One of Lindgren’s IU teammates, sophomore Lauren Giesecke, played golf for Northwestern and described their rivalry as similar to the IU-Purdue clash.

“Everyone that goes to Western were not our friends,” Giesecke said.

Lindgren’s and Giesecke’s parents were friends and the two attended Christmas parties together, but battled it out on the links.

Now there is no longer the same tension and the two are great friends, something Lindgren didn’t expect.

“Now we are friends,” Lindgren said. “I never would have guessed she would be that person that I’m really good friends with today.”

During this past summer Giesecke said they saw each other almost every day and played golf and went to movies together. Giesecke added that although they were once rivals, Lindgren hasn’t hesitated to offer a helping hand.
“She has helped me with golf, school and everything,” Giesecke said.

IU legacy and future plans

Wallman said Lindgren has been a key component to building the program and a culture since the coach arrived at IU.

“Amber has been very much an IU person, she has represented women’s golf and what we are trying to do as a program exceptionally well,” he said. “She is the epitome of the IU women’s golfer who works hard, who cares about the program and she has helped set that culture.”

Lindgren, who plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in sports marketing and management, already has a job lined up at the newly formed Woodwinds Golf Academy in Indianapolis.

She will work as a teaching professional, conduct kids clinics and give individual lessons before hopefully getting her LPGA Tour card in the teaching and coaching division, something she said she is excited about.

“I’ve been taking lessons ever since I was 12,” Lindgren said. “I’ve always known that’s what I wanted to do – to help people – and I feel like I have a lot of knowledge about golf sine I started so early.”

Wallman, who said Lindgren will be significantly missed upon graduation, feels she will have great success in her future plans.

“As she gets out into the real world and is exposed to different teachers and ideas, she will make a really remarkable teacher,” he said. “I expect her to have great success as golf professional when she graduates from IU.”

Randy Lindgren, an avid golfer himself, fully supports his daughter’s decision to continue in the golf industry and is happy to have something in common with his daughter.

Although he taught her the game of golf 17 years ago, Amber has for now surpassed him in the game he calls the world’s toughest to master.

“I don’t think I could beat her right now,” he said. “I would have to practice a lot to get to her level.”