Lindell continued his strong form in China – “I’m just behind the leaders on the greens”
Oliver Lindell continued his strong form on Hainan Island in China. The Finn carded a 69 (-3) on Friday, and his overall score of -7 kept Lindell within striking distance of a top-10 finish in joint 13th place. A brilliant day came to an unfortunate end with two consecutive bogeys. Lindell had been tied for fifth place about half an hour before the finish, but the challenging finish caused him to slip back.
“A good day and things are looking reasonable after two days. This has been as expected, and the biggest problems are still on the greens. They’re bumpy, and there’s not even a ‘foot’s range’ of gimme, as the ball can roll off with the grass wherever it happens to go. I didn’t miss any of the short ones, but I missed three from a metre and a half, and I can’t afford to do that.”
“For the past two days, I’ve been watching from the sidelines as the putts drop. I’m five strokes behind Campillo, who’s in second place, and I reckon that’s the difference on the greens. We both hit the ball well, but I just can’t keep up on the greens,” said Lindell.
However, Lindell managed to improve on yesterday’s performance when the action moved to the more challenging course at Mission Hills. The Blackstone Course, which serves as the main venue for the tournament this weekend, is the longest and most challenging of the courses, and the Porvoo native seemed to be more than a match for the course surrounded by lava rocks.
He was also pleased to be returning to “normal”, with the weekend’s play taking place without amateur players and on foot. The competition rounds, and particularly the time between shots, tend to drag on when there are amateur players in the groups in the spirit of a Pro-Am.
The Finnish ace’s form really came to the fore as he moved onto the back nine (holes 1–9), racking up birdies on holes 1, 2 and 4. No fewer than four of his six birdies came on par-4 holes, meaning the par-5s still left room for improvement over the weekend. Of those, the notorious 623-metre 13th hole saw a bogey today. Played from the back tees, this monster hole required a 4-iron after two mini-drivers.
“My iron play was particularly strong today. The fairways here are so wide that you really have to hit them. The wind was much stronger today than yesterday, so I’d say I performed well on a more challenging course. It was quite a tough day, as there were times when I had to wait for quite a while.”
The leader of the competition is Jordan Gumberg of the United States (-14), who has racked up an impressive 16 birdies over two days.
Lindell will tee off in the third round on Saturday at 5.00 am Finnish time, alongside Quentin Debove of France and Zihao Jin of China.