Lindell carded five birdies on the back nine and made his 24th consecutive cut – “No need to visit the barber just yet”
Oliver Lindell provided some thrilling action during his lap and demonstrated his incredible nerves. Lindell is currently tied for 25th place, but the situation was completely different just half an hour before the finish.
With two holes remaining, various statistics services put his chances of making the cut at around 25 per cent based on his current total score of -3. His approach shot on the eighth hole (the penultimate hole of the day) fell a disappointing ten metres wide of the hole, but Lindell sank what was his longest putt of the day so far.
“Yes, the birdie on the 8th hole was huge; it took the pressure off heading into the final hole, as I’d thought I could even afford a bogey on the last. I approached the shot in the same way as on the previous hole, and the wind was supposed to help, but a gust blew the ball further away from the flag.”
Although the birdie set Lindell free for the final hole, a bogey would probably no longer have been enough to see him through, but a birdie could seal his 24th consecutive cut. On the challenging ninth hole, the Finn’s approach landed more than 20 metres short, and it looked as though a long wait to see if he would make the cut lay ahead. However, Lindell once again proved he is at his best under pressure at the decisive moment and sank a monster putt to secure his place for the weekend with a score of -5.
“On the last hole, another unbelievable putt went in; I measured it with my steps and it was 21 metres. I was planning to put it right on the hole, but somehow the hole swallowed it up from the right edge as it rolled in. I was planning to go to the barber after my first missed cut, but that hasn’t happened yet,” laughed Lindell.
The Porvoo native’s round wasn’t all plain sailing, as the start of the round proved challenging, just like yesterday. The front nine, starting from the 10th hole, was a tough battle, and good short game saved several pars when even bogeys were hanging in the air. However, a birdie sunk on the 1st hole immediately turned the Finn’s round around at the start of the back nine.
“Another dreadful start; somehow I managed to play par until, on the 15th hole, I misjudged the wind and missed a two-metre par putt. On the 16th, I hit a miraculous wedge shot from the rough into the only spot I couldn’t afford to miss. I didn’t manage to make birdies on holes 17 and 18, and I was already planning my flight back to Finland that evening.”
“We’ve got flights from here to Munich for next week’s tournament, and I’d already been thinking about changing the flights to go from Helsinki to Munich and then back to Finland on this evening’s flight. But my putting on the back nine was brilliant. Every par was one where the birdie putts were close to dropping,” said Lindell.
France’s Tom Vaillant has pulled three strokes clear at the top of the leaderboard, leading the tournament on -13.