Ingrid Lindblad wins JM Eagle LA Championship in 3rd start as LPGA Tour member

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ingrid Lindblad won the JM Eagle LA Championship on Sunday in her third start as an LPGA Tour member, avoiding a playoff when fellow rookie Akie Iwai bogeyed the final hole at El Caballero Country Club.

“You should never not expect it, right?” Lindblad said. “But obviously got it done in a couple starts. Just kind of crazy.”

Playing a group ahead of Iwai, Lindblad shot a 4-under 68 to finish at 21-under 277. The 25-year-old former LSU star from Sweden made the last of her six birdies on the par-5 11th and parred the final seven holes. She had two front-nine bogeys.

“Felt like I could have made a couple more birdies on the back nine but nothing really wanted to drop. I feel like I was just trying to like be where you can’t see if you’re 5-under par or 5-over par. Just staying in the moment and show no emotion. But sometimes it’s hard to show no emotion.”

Iwai followed a third-round 64 with a 69 to fall a stroke short.

“I got confidence, yeah, but I lose this week,” Iwai said. “But I got confidence, a lot. Little by little, this week, next week, the next week, just keep going”

The 22-year-old Japanese player's twin sister, Chisato, tied for 11th at 15 under after a 68. The sisters played alongside each other Saturday.

Iwai pulled even with Lindblad at 21 under with a birdie on the par-5 16th. After her drive went left and bounced twice on the cart path, Iwai hit a low cut around a tree to the front edge of the green and rolled a 75-foot eagle putt to inches.

On the par-4 18th, Iwai drove to the right over a bunker into rough, then hit a 9-iron from 150 that bounced near the flag and went off the back edge.

“Maybe I have adrenaline,” Iwai said. “But I don’t like short.”

From a good lie in choppy rough, she ran the downhill chip past the hole and missed the comebacker.

“That was a tough putt,” she said.

Lindblad got a break on the par-4 13th when her drive struck a tree on the left side and bounced into the fairway. She parred the hole to maintain a two-stroke lead.

“I don’t know the camera guy up there, but he was like, `There was a little squirrel up there who was nice to you and bumped it out on the fairway,'” Lindblad said.

Lauren Coughlin (70), Esther Henseleit (64), Miyu Yamashita (66) tied for third at 19 under. Nasa Hataoka had a 63 to get to 18 under.

Hannah Green, the winner each of the last two seasons at Wilshire Country Club, closed with a 67 to tie for ninth at 16 under. Second-ranked Jeeno Thitikul also was 16 under after a 69.

Top-ranked Nelly Korda had a 72 to tie for 16th at 14 under in her final start before her title defense in the Chevron Championship. The major event starts Thursday outside Houston at The Woodlands.

The tournament — the final event of the tour’s West Coast swing — was played at El Caballero because of renovations at Wilshire. It will return to Wilshire next season.

Lindblad also shot 68 in the first and second rounds and had a 63 on Friday.

“I feel like I played pretty aggressive all week,” Lindblad said. “I think it would just hurt me if we were trying to get too defensive. Felt like we stuck to the same game plan as we had the first three days, and turns out it worked out really well.”

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Ingrid Lindblad hits from the fifteenth tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad lines up her putt on the fifteenth green during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad putts on the fourteenth green during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad looks on after hitting from the fifteenth tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad reacts while being sprayed with champagne after winning the LPGA JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad reacts while being sprayed with champagne after winning the LPGA JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Yuri Yoshida hits from the sixth tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Savannah Katarina Grewal hits from the fifth tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Akie Iwai hits from the seventh fairway during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Akie Iwai hits on the sixth hole during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Lauren Coughlin hits from the seventh tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad putts on the sixth green during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Akie Iwai hits from the seventh tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad hits from the bunker on the sixth hole during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad poses with the trophy after winning the LPGA JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad hits from the sixth tee during the final round of the LPGA's JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Ingrid Lindblad poses with the trophy after winning the LPGA JM Eagle LA Championship golf tournament at El Caballero Country Club, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After cooling slowly in 2024 and 2025, inflation is rising again, squeezing most Americans' budgets and making it harder to afford gas, groceries, and other necessities. Inflation reached 3.8% in April from a year earlier, the highest in three years.

So, how bad is it really? Larry Kudlow, a financial news commentator on Fox Business, posed that question Wednesday to Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, which advises the president on the economy. Hassett had good news: inflation is actually “on a deep downward dive,” particularly if you take blue states out of the equation.

The numbers, however, tell a different story.

Here's a look at the facts.

HASSETT: “Inflation is really out of control in the blue states. If you take out New York and California the story is radically different. So these really high costs, high regulatory states are driving inflation as well.”

THE FACTS: This is false and appears to be based on outdated data. Inflation is high in all nine of the Census Bureau's national regions and is driven by rising gas prices stemming from the Middle Eastern conflict, which have also pushed up air fares. More expensive fuel has also raised shipping costs, which has lifted grocery prices. Clothing costs have also shot higher, which may reflect the delayed impact of President Trump's tariffs.

“It's not a blue state story,” said Omair Sharif, chief economist at Inflation Insights. “Gas is going up in every state.”

Hassett cited a report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers that had found modestly higher inflation in blue states. Yet the report used data from last November, long before the Iran war, which began Feb. 28. Since then soaring gas prices — up more than 40% nationwide, according to AAA — have erased those discrepancies.

In short, taking blue states out of the equation makes little difference, as plenty of red states are seeing higher inflation, too. The Labor Department compiles the most widely-followed inflation gauge, the consumer price index, and releases the data by region. So, for example, the Pacific region is made up of mostly so-called blue states, or those governed by Democrats: California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska, and its yearly inflation rate was 3.5% in April — below the national rate of 3.8%.

The East South Central region is made up of all so-called red states — governed by Republicans — and its annual inflation rate in April was 4.5%, above the national average. The East South Central is Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Some red states are seeing lower inflation than the national average. The West South Central region, which is made up of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, saw consumer prices rise 3.2% in April from a year earlier. But before the pandemic that region was seeing inflation closer to 1% annually, so inflation has gotten worse even there.

It's true that blue states such as California or New York often do have higher prices overall than red states. For example, gas prices in Texas averaged $3.72 a gallon Thursday, according to AAA, while they were $5.98 a gallon in California.

But inflation measures price increases, not levels. And gas prices have jumped in Texas since the Iran war, just as they have in California. In fact, compared with a year ago, gas prices have risen nearly 36% in Texas, while they are up 26% in California.

HASSETT: “It's on a deep downward dive if you look at the trimmed mean or the core, it's headed right towards the Fed's target.”

THE FACTS: This is misleading. Core inflation, according to the consumer price index, has risen this year from an annual rate of 2.5% in January to 2.8% in April, the latest data available. It is lower than the headline number of 3.8% because the core figure excludes volatile food and energy prices in an effort to get a picture of underlying inflation trends. Over time, the headline figure tends to move to the core, which is why the Federal Reserve and economists often put more weight on the core.

Using the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE — annual core inflation also rose to 3.3% in April, up from 3.1% in January.

“There's no deep dive happening in core inflation anywhere,” Sharif said.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that core inflation as measured by the CPI is still lower than it was in January 2025.

The trimmed mean that Hassett mentioned is one of many obscure, alternative measures, and it has gotten more attention recently because it has been cited by Kevin Warsh, the new chair of the Federal Reserve appointed by President Trump. The trimmed mean is calculated essentially by throwing out many of the largest price changes, both increases and decreases, in an effort to gauge whether price increases are spreading more broadly into a wide range of categories.

Hassett is right that the trimmed mean for the PCE index, as calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, has declined slightly since the start of the year, from 2.5% to 2.3%, and is close to the Fed's 2% target. Yet the president of the Dallas Fed, Lorie Logan, warned Wednesday that the measure may be misleading when inflation is surging because of some quirks in the way it is calculated. It stayed low well into the inflation surge of 2021, for example.

The Cleveland Fed calculates a separate trimmed mean from the CPI data, and it recently ticked up to 2.8% from 2.6%.

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

Tomatoes await customers on the shelves of a supermarket in New York on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Sedensky)