Lindell enters the competition for the first time among the world's top 300
The third consecutive week of competition on the DP World Tour brings one of the most historic tournaments in the tour's history, as the KLM Open in the Netherlands is being played for the 105th time. Oliver Lindell is entering the competition in excellent form, as evidenced by his recent career-best world ranking of 292.
The Porvoo native has updated his club selection for recent competitions, and he enters this week's competition with both his new driver and mini driver broken in during competition. A few minor adjustments have also been made to the Finn's equipment for this week, as the mini driver has taken one spot away from the wedges in his cousin's bag.
"We were looking for a replacement for the wedge section, as there was quite a big gap in the last competition when we went straight from the pitching wedge to the 54-degree wedge. I didn't have a club in between, as I had to leave out the 50-degree wedge to make room for the mini driver. For this week, I took new 52- and 58-degree wedges," Lindell said of his updates.
The fireworks of beating par scores will most likely come to an end this week. The winning scores in recent competitions have been a staggering -19 and -13, but this week's competition will challenge players in a different way. The course is the same length for the third week in a row, but Amsterdam's tight greens and links-style rough will provide plenty of hazards.
"It's a tough competition arena this week. Strong winds and, unsurprisingly, rain are also forecast for this week. The greens have a lot of run-outs, so if you don't hit the green, the ball will roll far away from it, resulting in challenging short game shots. The fairways are also lined with long grass, but the biggest challenge to the game is the strong wind."
In recent years, the winners have scored as low as -10 on Amsterdam's The International course, but this is not expected to happen again.
"If the course is set up like this, players here have speculated that the winning score will not even be below par. However, I believe that several fairways will still be shortened by moving the tees," Lindell estimates.
This week, the players will be giving it their all, as there will be a short break in competition after the last two weeks.
"I'm looking forward to this week, knowing that I'll have a couple of weeks off afterwards
."
Lindell will tee off on Thursday in the last group of the day from the 10th tee at 3.30 p.m. Finnish time. He will be accompanied on the first two days by Dan Erickson from the United States and Bjorn Driessen from Finland.