Lindell climbed into the top 20 – two strokes off sixth place – "My best round of the week, but I'm not satisfied with the result."
Oliver Lindell improved on his score from yesterday by two strokes in the third round, finishing with a score of 69 (-3). The Finn was unable to match his frenetic performance from the first day, but maintained his position near the top of the leaderboard in T19 with a total score of -9.
On Saturday, Lindell managed to take excellent advantage of the par fives on the course, scoring a birdie on each of them. Apart from these, there were few other successes, even though he again hit an impressive 16 greens in regulation. His putter has not been as hot as it was on the opening day, which is inevitably reflected in the scoreboard.
“I missed two greens, resulting in bogeys on both. It feels like there’s nothing to be done in this competition when the conditions are this easy. I can’t be satisfied with anything other than the fact that I managed to achieve something after a challenging start. The greens were in better condition, but it’s easy to hit the ball in these conditions, even though the flag positions were challenging. I wasn’t able to take advantage of the easy flag positions by hitting close enough,” said Lindell.
Lindell managed to turn his game around after a challenging front nine, where his approaches were not quite on target and his putts did not drop. He found his accuracy on the back nine and got off to a strong start. He made four birdies on holes 9-14. His long drives were also impressive, although his accuracy was not quite at the same level as in previous rounds.
“I made one mistake on the front nine when I hit the ball a little too cleanly with a club that was too big on the fourth fairway, and the ball rolled all the way through the green to a bad spot. That resulted in a bogey on the card. On the back nine, I hit a weak drive into a bunker, which left me with a poor lie. However, I still managed to hit a good pitch shot, but I couldn’t get the putt in. Otherwise, my hitting was really good, much better than on the opening day. Back then, I didn’t even hit very well, but the putts just sank.”
On an easy course in a high-level competition, sinking putts is essential for playing at the top of the leaderboard. On a good putting day, Lindell is well within reach of the top spots. Although he was disappointed with his performance on Saturday, he is only two strokes behind sixth place.
Calum Hill, who started the day in the lead, has let his fellow competitors catch up, with the lead now standing at just one stroke at -16.