Lindell: "After yesterday's mess, good swings today"
Oliver Lindell performed a clear improvement compared to yesterday, using 71 strokes for his third round, which is the par score for the course. His ranking remains largely unchanged, and he is currently in T37th place in the competition. Conditions improved slightly as the wind calmed down by a few metres per second compared to yesterday. However, the weather cannot be described as easy, and the Dubai Creek course has also proven to be more challenging than expected.
“The course is definitely challenging. There are many situations where the tee shots are semi-rough, and I misjudged how hard the ball would bounce off the ground. Today, I hit all my tee shots down the fairway, but they didn’t stay on the fairway every time. I don’t know what happened on the opening fairway (fairway 10), whether it bounced off a rock or something straight to the right. Not exactly an ideal start to the round,” Lindell analysed.
The 10th hole has not been favourable for Lindell, as it is the easiest hole on the course, and yesterday he scored a double bogey there.
The Finnish player’s accuracy took a step forward on Saturday. He was not entirely satisfied with his performance, even though there were signs of improvement. He scored 14 birdies, but at times they were far from the flag. On the other hand, his putting game was on point again today, even though there were a few rare three-putts from a distance. These were more a result of poorly judged approaches. The three-putts resulted in two of the day’s three bogeys.
“Better performance today, but the weather did help a little. There were some good swings today after yesterday’s mess. A couple of three-putts came from long range, but my putting is still at a good level, and I’m particularly pleased with that this week. With good play tomorrow, we can get the best out of this season.”
At the top of the competition is Spain’s Nacho Elvira (-7), who has been performing consistently.