Collegiate golfer Adessa Lundberg heads into promising junior season

Last year, 2021 Lovell High School graduate and current collegiate golfer Adessa Lundberg achieved a feat few professional golfers manage, a two on a par five, otherwise known as an albatross.
The MSU Billings golfer, now a junior, shot an albatross on hole three, a 477 yard par five at the Wigwam Golf Course on March 14, 2022, in Litchfield Park Arizona, being the sole golfer at the tournament to pull this off.
Each year, there are only a few hundred albatrosses in professional golf, compared to 40,000 holes-in-one each year. It takes the average golf player 24 years before they score a hole-in-one, let alone the much rarer albatross.
Lundberg’s coach Adam Buie said he and her teammates were there to watch as she achieved the rare feat.
“Actually, myself and two of her teammates were on the next hole, and we got to watch it go in. She made it from around 170 yards out. Pretty spectacular shot,” he said. “It’s very rare. I’ve actually been one of the few that have it. Not many people that I know have a two on a par five.”
Lundberg said that she did not realize at first that the shot had gone in when she achieved her two on a par five. She scored from so far out, it wasn’t until she saw her coach’s reaction that she knew she made it.
“I am going to be honest, I didn’t think that it went in,” she said.  “I happened to hit the downslope just right and it rolled right up on the green and trickled into the cup. It was a cool moment I got to share with two teammates as well as my coach.”
The great success that Lundberg showed through her once-in-a-career shot last year did not happen overnight. Her freshman season, she struggled and questioned whether she was even cut out for college golf. Having difficulty adjusting to new life in college, she only competed in two events her freshman year. She felt like she was starting over with golf, learning how to be a good player all over again.
Since then, things have been getting better for Lundberg.
“By the end of my freshman year in the spring semester, I got things figured out. I’m starting to play some better golf. Last year, my sophomore year, I went to every single tournament and was playing some pretty good golf from what I had been playing and so made a lot of improvements. And then this past fall, my junior year, I played decent golf,” she said.
Lundberg said that she missed one tournament in the fall season, but that she plans to rebuild from that drop in performance and feels very confident for her upcoming spring season. She said she thinks she will be at every tournament next year for the spring championship season.
Buie said the biggest thing he can compliment Lundberg on is how much she has improved her golf game since her freshman year.
Athletics aren’t the only way Lundberg excels, he said. She is an elementary education major who maintains a high GPA. She plans to teach elementary school in Wyoming, Colorado or Montana, as well as coach sports at the middle or high school level, he said.
“She has a big sports background because she likes a lot of sports. So she’s got a lot of options there,” he said.
Buie said that Lundberg also shows great character, which is the reason he picked her as team captain. He said Lundberg keeps the team accountable when he isn’t around, maintains a positive team atmosphere and is responsible for making sure everything goes right during team trips.
As team captain, Lundberg acts as an assistant coach on team trips, coordinating outfits and deciding who stays in each room, he said.
Being team captain isn’t Lundberg’s only responsibility. Typically, Lundberg was in class from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. before going to golf practice for three hours. Lundberg also lifts weights twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and other training consists of focused workouts or skill based training.
She is also a resident assistant at her dorm, working shifts between traveling and practice.
At first, Lundberg said it was difficult to learn how to be independent in college. But she has learned. Since her freshman year, Lundberg said she has improved her time management skills to the point where she no longer feels overwhelmed, despite a busy schedule.
Altogether, heading into the spring season of her junior year, Lundberg says good things are coming.
“I’m becoming a lot more consistent with my ball striking and just with flexion and everything like that. So really hoping to shoot in the 70s this spring and bring up my consistency,” she said. “So I’m feeling pretty confident going into the season and hoping that confidence just continues to roll over especially into my senior year next year.”
Buie said that Lundberg hopes to be an Academic All-American for golf next spring season. To do that, she will need to have a GPA of 3.5 or higher, be on the team’s roster the whole season and play in at least 50% of the competitive rounds that season.
After college, Lundberg would love to go pro in golf, but admits that goal is a stretch. Either way, she plans to always golf and find happiness in the game, because even when golf frustrates her, she finds enjoyment in it.
But Lundberg made an albatross. Being 20 years old when she achieved the feat, Lundberg had only been alive for around 10 and a half million minutes. Yet it is estimated by the Professional Golfers’ Association of America to be a 6 million in 1 odds to hit an albatross. Achieving odds like that is no accident, she took advantage of every minute from the start.
Even without her golf, via her character, responsibility and community spirit, Lundberg’s life has been a double eagle flying across the sky, and so there are no limits to her stratosphere.