From the Fairway: Finding New Perspectives

For Fia Lindblom, being at Texas State was a new experience. Not only for all the obvious reasons like being 5,000-plus miles away from home, it being her first year of college or all the new people she would meet in her new town.

It would be the first time she would play golf as part of a team that represented a school. Back home in Sweden, she would play a few events throughout the year with her club team, Delso GK, and the Swedish Ladies Team Championship is one of her favorite tournaments.   

But there were no high school teams for her to be a part of back home, so coming to Texas State meant that she was able to be part of a new kind of team, and that experience was exciting to her. 

In her brief time in San Marcos, she’s proven that she can excel in competition and, throughout that process, she has been able to help Texas State compete. She’s already had so much to be proud of in her individual accomplishments and it would be easy for her to note among her greatest golf memories are the four times she was named Junior Golfer of the Year or the two times she was named an Annika Cup player. Or even the times she represented the Swedish National Team or competed at the Ladies European Tour Access pro tournament.

But when asked about her favorite golf memory, she may have even caught herself off guard with the answer.

“There are just a lot of things you don’t really expect going into college,” she continued. “It was very special to see the power of a group of people coming together and striving for something for a whole year and achieving it. It was more than just winning the conference. The whole experience was just very, very special.” 

She picked a good time to be a Bobcat. The conference championship was the first in eight years for TXST, same with the NCAA Regional bid. As a freshman, she was one of five in the lineup for stroke play that saw three Bobcats, including her, finish in the top 10. When Texas State sealed the victory in match play over Georgia Southern, she was 2-up thru 15. 

It didn’t come without pain, though. After the season-opening tournament her freshman year, it was confirmed. She had torn her labrum. An injury that couldn’t be ignored for too long. 

However, she made it through year one. She competed in seven tournaments, including five as part of the lineup, and finished fourth at the Texas State Invitational in addition to her 10th place finish at the conference championships. She led the Bobcats at the Schooner Fall Classic to open the 2024-25 season and posted her highest finish of the fall at the Jim West Challenge. 

But there was always the lingering issue.

Lindblom had surgery on her hip after the 2024 fall season, causing her to miss the spring portion of this season’s schedule. She realized she wasn’t ready to not be on the course as part of the team.

“I care a lot for this team, and I think that has been one of the most challenging things about the fact that I won't be able to play or contribute during the spring semester,” she said. “I'm trying to help out as much as I can from the sideline.” 

For Lindblom, it’s the simple things. It’s showing up with a good attitude and wanting to be around the team as much as she can to support them while they are about to start the spring semester. She admits, though, that it might be the team that’s showing up for her.

Besides her teammates, Lindblom has a larger group she wishes to thank since she started her journey to Texas State. A coaching staff and an athletics training staff among them.

Throughout her recruiting journey she had her priorities when it came to schools. One of the biggest, the coaching staff. Head Coach Par Nilsson and then-assistant coach Kelly Welker were instrumental in her arrival to San Marcos, and the juxtaposition of Nilsson and current assistant coach Maria Jose Martinez as well as former player Hailey Jones, who has come back to help mentor the Bobcats, has given her a different perspective on the game. 

“Par has a lot of experience, both as a good player himself but also as a coach at multiple schools before this. He is very knowledgeable about the game, and I have a lot to learn from him,” she said. “And I think Maria, who just graduated herself, is very good at putting herself in our situation. It’s easy for her to understand what we’re feeling and that adds experience to our coaching staff.” 

Same with Jones, who was on the team last year and Lindblom notes was basically coaching already. 

“I feel very lucky she was spending her fifth year here with us my freshman year,” she added. “She helped me with everything, and I look up to her a lot. With all of her experience and her willingness to help us younger players on the team, I kind of saw her as a coach already.”

Overall, though, she admits some of her college experience has been a bit up and down.

“College golf is something different compared to what I’m used to even though I was playing International before. We had a really good team last year, so you had to play well to have a spot on the team…”

Being injured made it even more difficult for her.

“…But I kind of got a handle of how to get through that fall [of freshman year] and I started playing better in the spring.” 

A handle she wouldn’t have found without assistant athletics trainer Taylor Lippert and team physical therapist Dr. Tiffany Constantino. 

“I’m so thankful for the training staff, especially Tiff and Taylor,” she acknowledged. “They’ve been working a lot with me ever since I got injured. I really appreciate all they have done to help me, both when I was trying to work around my injury without surgery and now post op. Without the help and support from them I truly don't think I would have been able to play as much or as well as I did last year. Especially not during conference and post season.” 

College is a place full of lessons. Perhaps just as important as those learned in the classroom are the life lessons. Lindblom has packed a lot of those into her time here while only heading into her fourth semester. A fourth semester that will look much different than the first three.

“It’s been interesting,” she noted. “You kind of start to see things with fresh eyes. It’s so different to be in it yourself when I’m qualifying and when I’m competing, there are obviously a lot of things that impact you and how you perceive everything. It gets stressful and there’s pressure and when you’re not playing, you get another perspective. It’s kind of helpful to get a new perspective on everything.”

She’s grown to like the pressure, even enough to miss it. 

“It gets stressful… and you have a lot of expectations on yourself when you are out there trying your best to perform. Not only for yourself, but for our team, and our school. Which sometimes can be very tough, but that's the part of the game I have also missed the most so far. I like the adrenaline rush on the first tee box and the feeling of you being able to handle and grow under the nerves and your own expectations.”

For however long she chooses to stay in San Marcos, it will always be a stop on her journey. She grew up just 50 yards away from the course in Sweden and golf was there from the beginning. But, there was something she didn’t have there.

“Chipotle,” she giggled, admitting that it’s her favorite place to go in San Marcos. “We don’t have it back home and we go there all the time with the team, and I love it. Starbucks, too.” 

If the day comes that she decides to head back to Sweden, leaving the inconspicuous chain restaurant behind, she’ll never leave behind Fia Lindblom, the Bobcat. 

Texas State opens the spring portion of its schedule on Monday, hosting the Texas State Invitational at the Vaaler Creek Golf Club in Blanco, Texas. The Bobcats closed out the fall with a seventh place finish at the Jim West Invitational, and Yvonne Chamness received Sun Belt Conference Golfer of the Week honors following her runner-up finish at the Ron Moore Intercollegiate.