A thunderstorm delayed the start by five hours, and Lindell couldn’t get into his stride in India
In golf, thorough preparation and successful practice rounds are by no means a guarantee of success in the actual competition. Lindell was brimming with confidence ahead of the tournament in New Delhi, India. His original tee-off time was delayed by five hours when a thunderstorm broke out about 15 minutes before the Finn was due to tee off.
Naturally, all the preparations had already been completed, and a long wait in the hotel room lay ahead. Lindell finally got out onto the course at 16:10 local time to play seven holes. The result was four pars and three bogeys. A score of +3 currently puts him in joint 102nd place. Even after just seven holes, it became clear that missed shots off the tee and on approach are unforgiving on this course.
“I’m quite surprised at such a poor start. My swing felt really good during practice for the first time in ages, and it felt good on the first few holes today as well. My tee shot on the fourth hole ended up in a semi-rough, and the muddy ball wouldn’t go anywhere from there. After that, I was completely off my game, and luckily we wrapped things up for the day. There were some decent shots towards the end, but I couldn’t sink the putts. It’s a familiar story: on practice days I’m in control of the ball, but in the actual tournament I start to lose my way,” Lindell lamented.
As the vast majority of tee shots are hit with an iron, there is still a long way to go on the approach shots. Consequently, the high number of fairway hits this week does not directly translate into the number of greens in regulation.
Lindell hit four out of seven greens, and missed two out of five fairways. Both missed fairways were very close, but immediately resulted in a bogey on the scorecard.
“You can’t get anywhere from that rough. The greens are also really unpredictable – sometimes the ball rolls forward on approach shots and sometimes it stays put. There’s nothing we can do about this start now; tomorrow we’ll be off at the crack of dawn. By this afternoon, we’ll know whether we’ll have to pack our bags or carry on working over the weekend.”
The Porvoo native will set off on Friday at 6.45 am local time in a bid to secure a place above the cut line, as play resumes for those players who did not complete their round.
The best round on the opening day was posted by Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard (-6).