The winner of the 2018 ANA Inspiration major tournament will line up with the professionals in the New Zealand Open tomorrow, the only female in the field.
The 33-year-old is a big fan of New Zealand and the South Island in particular.
“I first came here in 2010 to play the New Zealand Open in Christchurch.
"The following year when I came back in 2011, my boyfriend, now husband, he had come the previous year with his brother," she said.
"So he said ‘I need to take you around the South Island’. So we spent two weeks around the South Island.
"We snuck out of Christchurch the day before the big earthquake. We were hiking on the Franz Josef Glacier when it struck but luckily we didn’t feel anything.
"We came down here to Queenstown and I fell in love with it. So when there was an opportunity to come back and we were looking for a wedding venue, and struggling to find one, we decided to concentrate on us and so we came back here."
The couple — her husband is English, their families are all over the place and they live in Florida — were married last year in the Queenstown area.
They are now enjoying their one-year anniversary back in the resort although she is yet to tie the bungy cord.
"I’m not that much of an adrenaline junkie. I watched my husband sky dive out by the Remarkables. But it is going to take a lot to get me up into one of those planes.
"Being a professional athlete the adrenalin comes on a daily basis and being in a competition mode."
Lindberg will be in the exact same shoes as all the other professionals in the tournament — having to hit off the back tees.
"That is the big challenge for me this week. If I am going to tee it off in the field, I need to play under the same rules as the guys and that is just part of the game."
She is partnering All Black Beauden Barrett in the first two rounds and said she knew who the All Blacks were.
She played a practice round with Barrett, and fellow All Blacks Israel Dagg and Damian McKenzie yesterday and really enjoyed it.
"It is cool to see three people who have been so successful in rugby get so nervous in a Tuesday practice round."
She wanted to be competitive but it would be hard as she did not have the power and some of the par-4s were too long for her game. She did not see her entry as being a major revolution in the game.
"I think so many good things are happening in the women’s game at the moment ... more sponsors, bigger events, playing at bigger and better golf courses.
"It is just a good time to be part of women’s sports in general and any little step like this helps."
She suggested maybe the event in Queenstown could one day include a women’s tournament.
Tournament chairman John Hart said he was delighted to get a player of such high calibre to the Open. It was a unique occasion for New Zealand golf and a sponsor’s invitation spot had been used to enable her to play.
