Just one fairway hit with the driver – Lindell: “I wasn’t able to play to my strengths”
Oliver Lindell carded five birdies and five bogeys on his opening round in the first tournament of the Abu Dhabi Finals, finishing with a score of 72 (par). On a course that favours birdies, this was only enough for a T47 finish. The problem on the opening day was his tee play, as the Porvoo native didn’t hit the fairway with his driver until the final hole of the day. Three iron tee shots also found the fairway, bringing his total to 4 out of 14.
“Today I couldn’t tell what kind of spin the driver would produce. When I aimed for the left-hand side of the fairway, it came out as a slight draw, and when I started to play it safe, I ended up with fade shots into the right-hand rough. The course is really easy when you hit the fairway, but today I wasn’t able to play to my strengths, which have been my iron play, which has been in great form. I had to play defensively, as with these pin positions it’s impossible to get close from the rough. That means getting up and down from 20 metres in two putts.”
Lindell, who had been hitting one green after another during his practice round, had to settle for a significantly lower number of greens in regulation due to his poor driving. More challenging pin positions and a swirling wind, combined with having to play from the rough, proved that Yas Links is no walk in the park if any aspect of your game falters. Mentally, how the round gets off to a start is also of great importance.
“Of course it makes a difference whether you start the day with a bogey or a birdie. On the second hole, I had a birdie chance straight away, but that’s where I missed the shortest putt of the day. When you make a bogey on an easy course before a birdie, and a few more after that, you’re suddenly a long way off the mark. I started off with some approach shots from the rough with a pitcher, the first two of which went really far and the third came up about twenty metres short. It’s tricky when you don’t know whether the ball will fly 175 metres or 140 from the rough.”
“I’ve now used up this week’s bogeys on the first day, and the worst round is behind me. After the round, we spent a long time practising drives on the driving range – so long, in fact, that I think my club head broke. I’ll get it replaced tomorrow. I started playing it too safe today as well, after my first tee shot went off in the wrong direction, and it felt as though even my good shots weren’t staying on the fairway,” Lindell lamented.
It is, of course, difficult to find anything to be pleased about on the opening day after such a challenging round, but one such highlight was the Finn’s putting. Unfortunately, all too often we found ourselves in a situation where a birdie putt that had been part of the plan was actually just an attempt to save par. A few longer birdie putts went in during the round, and Lindell finished his round with two fine birdies. The tour statistics once again show several missed putts from within two metres, but in reality there wasn’t a single one in the opening round.
“My putting was quite alright. I missed by a good three metres, but at the end I sank some 3–4-metre putts. We were pretty much ‘even’ with our putting. A par is a good result with this kind of play, especially when you can’t get close from the fairway, which is a really nice place to hit from here. I was just waiting for a par-3 hole to come along, where you can get the ball within five metres and have a chance. I handled those well today.”
Francesco Laporta, who played his round early this morning, came within a stroke of the course record and leads the competition with a score of 62 (-10). The Italian missed the fairway just once on Thursday. Second place, on a score of -7, is shared by Sam Bairstow, Jon Rahm and Bernd Wiesberger, who played in Lindell’s group.
Lindell will start his second round at 6.39 Finnish time, alongside Spain’s Angel Hidalgo and Italy’s Guido Migliozzi.