OXFORD — Given she’ll be traveling with a teammate and her coach, Ole Miss senior golfer Andrea Lignell certainly won’t lack company during her week in Georgia. Add in the fact some golfers from her native Sweden will be competing there and that her family will be making 20 hours or so worth of flights to see her, Lignell knows it will be a balancing act to see everyone she wants to see, meet new people and focus on the task at hand.
But it’s a good problem to have.
Lignell and Rebels teammate Caitlyn Macnab will compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which takes place April 3-6. The first two rounds are at the Champions Retreat in Evans, Georgia, and the final is at the legendary Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters.
Just 72 amateur golfers around the world are invited to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which began in 2019. Both Lignell and Macnab competed in last year’s event. Lignell, who is from Gothenburg, Sweden, grew up watching the Masters on television. The opportunity to play the course for the second year in a row isn’t something she takes lightly. But she also understands the experience itself matters, too.
“I do think it’s just important to maybe have a clear plan for what I want to get done every day during the week, and when I’m done with that I can do whatever. Because I want to spend time with my family, too. So, I think that’s how I’m going to balance it,” Lignell said. “ … That’s how I did it last year as well. Just plan out what I want to get done every day. And once I do that, then I can just spend my time doing whatever I want to do.”
Lignell didn’t choose golf as her primary sport until she was 15 or so. She grew up also playing handball, a popular sport in Europe which both her parents played, and actually believed that’s what her career was going to be focused on. But she dropped handball eight years ago or so and realized how much she enjoyed golfing.
Lignell estimates she golfs five or six days a week — which can take three or four hours per session — and works out an additional four or five hours per week off the course. That’s on top of her general engineering studies and business minor.
If you’re going to be good at golf, you have to love it.
“I’m going to lie, some days golf is horrible. Like, the golf course is the worst place where you can be,” Lignell said with a smile. “ … I love that you can practice in a team and still play in a team but still play for yourself every day. … Golf does require a lot of hours compared to other sports, I would say. So I just think it’s really fun when you do see results out on the golf course, knowing that you put in that work.
“ … Then it’s actually like the best sport out there.”
Opportunities to play golf collegiately back home are not common, Lignell said. So the options are to either go professional or to play collegiately in the United States. Lignell chose the latter.
Ole Miss had two golfers from Sweden on the team when she was being recruited and, after taking a visit to Oxford, Lignell realized she “absolutely loved the place.” She wasn’t expecting it to be as warm and communal as it is, but she was drawn to it. Lignell helped the Rebels win the national championship in 2021.
“You get to know many people,” Lignell said. “I feel like it’s a big family.”
Lignell made the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2023, a year in which she was an All-American and All-SEC pick. She entered last year’s tournament with no expectations. Lignell admittedly hasn’t had the spring she had hoped for this year, but she enters this week’s tournament with a goal nonetheless.
“(My coach and I) kind of agreed on, maybe we should go in with kind of the expectations as last year, just have fun. My goal was honestly last year to make the cut,” Lignell said. “ … And I think that’s just what I’m going to keep it as now. Because then I won’t get too much ahead of myself and I can just enjoy it with my coach the whole week.”
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