TARZANA — In 2004, Swedish golf icon Annika Sorenstam won her 50th LPGA Tour tournament at El Caballero Country Club. On Sunday, El Cab was the site of another milestone win for a Swedish golfer as LPGA rookie Ingrid Lindblad held off a late-round charge from another rookie, Akie Iwai, to win the JM Eagle LA Championship for her first LPGA title.

The former LSU standout fired a final-round 4-under 68 to finish at 21 under, earning her a one-shot victory over Imai, who bogeyed the final hole to finish at 20-under 268.

Lauren Coughlin, who started the day tied with Lindblad and Iwai, finished in a three-way tie for third with Germany’s Esther Henseleit and Miyu Yamashita at 19-under 269.

Lindblad’s first professional win comes in just her third LPGA start and her winning score of 267 set a 72-hole tournament scoring record at the JM Eagle LA Championship, besting Brooke Henderson’s 268, shot at Wilshire Country Club in 2021. She earned $562,500 for the win.

Having a chance to win at the same venue as Sweden’s greatest golfer is something that Lindblad was thrilled to experience.

“It means a lot to win at El Cab like Annika did,” Lindblad said. “What she’s done and did out on Tour was pretty incredible. Following in her footsteps is pretty big.”

After signing her scorecard and taking a quick bathroom break following a very long round, Lindblad was told by tournament officials that Iwai had a 10-foot par putt on the 18th hole and asked her if she wanted to watch what was going on.

“I was thinking if we’re going to go to a playoff I was like, OK,” Lindblad said. “Like in match play, you expect your opponent to make the chip, make the putt. You can’t be like oh, she’s going to miss it and I’m going to win the hole or match. Then when she missed it I was like, ‘Wow, I won.’ ”

Showing no signs of any final- round jitters, Lindblad opened her round by hitting three perfect shots, leaving her a 12-foot putt for birdie which she rolled in, giving her the outright lead for the first time on Sunday.

But two holes later, when she made a three-putt bogey on the third hole, Lindblad admitted for a moment she wondered if that was going to be the way things went for her the rest of the day. That thought quickly disappeared when she birdied the next two holes, putting her back in a tie for the lead and once again in control of her emotions.

From that point on, the 25-year-old rookie appeared calm. She birdied two of her final three holes to finish her front nine and when she birdied the par-5, 11th hole, Lindblad saw a scoreboard showing she was three shots up on the field.

“I feel like I was just out there trying to take one hole at a time,” Lindblad said. “I was just telling myself, just keep hitting good golf shots. Just staying in the moment and — I mean, show no emotion, but sometimes it’s hard to show no emotion.”

After a just missing a birdie putt on 12, Lindblad yanked her tee shot on the par-4, 13th hole. But miraculously her ball hit a tree and bounced into the middle of the fairway, preventing what might have been a chance to make a bogey or worse.

Throughout the course of the final round, Lindblad said she and her caddie decided the best course strategy for getting the result they wanted from the round was to stay aggressive and not worry about trying to protect her lead.

“I think it would just hurt me if we were trying to get too defensive,” Lindblad said. “We stuck to the same game plan as we had the first three days, and turns out it worked out really well. I kept hitting the ball good all day, so it wasn’t really any point where I was like, oh, you know what, we’re going to go very defensive into this pin. I feel like I play better golf when I have to hit it to, like a certain area. So I was in the rough left on 5 and I was like, well, the only place you can hit this is past the pin and let it come back. That’s exactly what I did, made it easy. Like a 2- or 3-footer for birdie.”

While Lindblad remained aggressive, throughout the back nine, her putter went cold, finishing her round with seven straight pars. The lack of scoring on Lindblad’s part gave Iwai and the other players chasing a chance to track her down.

Iwai did just that on the par-5 16th hole. After hitting her tee shot right and into the rough, it appeared she had little chance to put her second shot on the green. While her caddie advised her to chip out and then hit her third shot at the green, Iwai felt if she was going to chase Lindblad down, she needed to get aggressive.

The talented rookie hit a low cut shot that avoided a tree sitting in front of her ball and then rolled on to the edge of the green, leaving her a long but tricky putt for eagle. Iwai calmly rolled the putt across the green where it came to rest just inches from dropping for an eagle and the outright lead. She tapped in for birdie, leaving her tied for the lead with two holes left.

On 17 and 18, her approach shots bounced well beyond the pin, preventing her from having any real chance at making a birdie on either hole that could have given her a lead.

“I have a lot of adrenaline,” Iwai said. “I aimed for the hole from approach but it go long. It’s OK. That was a tough putt, but I really wanted to make it. But I missed it. It is OK.”

Iwai played well throughout the tournament and while she came up a little short on Sunday, she served notice that she has the ability to win and likely sooner than later in her career.