Eagle got Lindell's game going – four birdies in five holes secured a top round
Oliver Lindell was able to start his round at the KLM Open about two hours later than his original tee time due to a weather delay. Heavy, stormy rain interrupted play for a couple of hours.
However, the two-hour wait did not bother the Finn, who teed off in the last group of the day. He finished his round with a score of 68/-3 and is tied for 11th place at the end of the day. He is only two strokes away from the top 3, and Lindell was among those tied for third place before the last three holes.
"A good day all round, the conditions out there are challenging. The wind was strong at the start of the round, but it calmed down towards the end and was only 'a fair bit of wind'. There was a lot of rain, and it was tricky at the end when it got so dark. A sad end to a good round."
The round went fairly smoothly for the first eight holes (holes 10-17), except for the 16th, where, after a poor tee shot, Lindell had to hit a ball that was half in the water back onto the fairway with a pitch shot. This resulted in the only bogey of the front nine.
However, things picked up on the 18th hole. The Porvoo native hit his second shot with a par 5 to within a couple of metres and sank an eagle before even getting a birdie.
"A magnificent iron shot on the second shot, which almost went in. Then, from the second fairway onwards, I hit some good shots."
Takaysi played in a calm manner, completely changing gear, while Lindell sank a series of birdie putts, each longer than the last. The streak began with half-metre and metre birdie putts on holes 2 and 3. On the fifth hole, the Porvoo native sank a three-metre birdie and continued his hot streak on the very next hole, where he scored his fourth birdie of the day from about five metres.
"Between those four birdies, I missed another birdie putt from just over two metres, otherwise it would have been a five-hole streak. The only missed shots at the end of the day were short, and I didn't get any par saves from them," Lindell said of the ups and downs of the round.
Both bogeys in the final round came from green bunkers. Before the last three holes, the Finn's iron play was once again surgically precise. This made it easier to rack up birdies, but the importance of putting should not be underestimated either.
"My putting was on point. I developed a more sensible routine for my putting, which is why it was at a good level today. I no longer take a practice swing on the ball before putting, and my aim has improved," Lindell said.
Portugal's Ricardo Gouveia leads the competition with a score of -7. His 64-stroke round was a new course record, and the result was achieved on the front nine (holes 10-18), where the Portuguese player scored an incredible 28 strokes, putting him seven under par for the day.
The other Finnish player in the competition, Tapio Pulkkanen, is in 91st place with a score of +3. The number of birdies he made would be enough to break his losing streak, but in addition to one double bogey, there were still too many bogeys on his card.
Lindell will tee off for his second round on Friday at 10:30 a.m. Finnish time. This is only 12 hours after the finish of the first round.