A rare dip in form for Lindell with his hitting – "I haven't seen such a poor performance in a while."
Oliver Lindell had rare difficulties with his putting at Sun City on the second day. Lindell, currently one of the tour’s most consistent ball strikers, succumbed to poor choices and tactical blunders at times with his aggressive play in variable winds. A round of four bogeys and two birdies resulted in a score of +2, bringing his total score to -1. This puts him in 38th place.
The Porvoo native only hit seven greens yesterday, compared to 13 the day before. For some, this score might be nothing out of the ordinary, but Lindell himself cannot remember when he has ever performed so poorly, in his own opinion. The bunkers proved too much of a challenge, with three visits to the sand traps in the first six holes.
“It was a terrible day today, I haven’t played this badly in a long time. Yesterday, I had the wind well under control, but today I was completely lost. I hit long and short approaches from the green one after another. I often missed on the short side, which I rarely do, but today I had a record number of misses. It’s impossible to make up & down from all of them,” Lindell lamented.
The Finn got off to a decent start and didn’t stray far from the fairway, except for a few challenging tee shots. However, the challenging round included a string of good par saves, which will keep him in contention for a good finish in this major tournament.
Holes 13 and 15 do not suit my eye at all, and I will have to try a new approach tomorrow. I’ve hit them with a mini driver, but it hasn’t worked. The tees are surrounded by forest on both sides, which makes them challenging. I was too greedy on some of my approaches, and a few well-hit shots were misjudged due to the wind.”
Seven greens in regulation naturally do not open up enough good birdie opportunities. However, Lindell managed to find the silver lining in a difficult day.
“A few birdie putts from a couple of metres went wide, but there weren’t many opportunities today. Still, it was a good fight in the sense that I didn’t completely play myself out of the competition,” Lindell said.
Kristoffer Reitan (-12) retained his lead by one stroke going into the weekend with a birdie on the final hole. Lindell, four strokes behind the top 10, will tee off for his third round at 9:55 a.m.