Lindell faces a challenging Independence Day afternoon – "My playing style is too aggressive for this pitch"
Oliver Lindell’s third round was disappointing in terms of results. Unfortunately, his scorecard showed 76 (+4) strokes on Independence Day, dropping the Finn to T43 in the overall standings at +3. Most of the strokes were lost on the greens, especially on the front nine.
“I missed a few too many putts from just over a metre away. The biggest problem is still the grain on the green, as I can’t get the ball to roll well enough on short putts. On the last hole of the front nine, I got a good putt from a long way off, where the options were to leave five metres short of the semi-raff or alternatively let the ball roll 15 metres downhill.”
The round was taking a positive turn on the back nine (holes 1-9) when Lindell managed to make consecutive birdies on holes 1 and 2, but the final round ended with the fifth and sixth bogeys of the day. The man himself took the round fairly calmly, knowing that the season is still in its early stages and that his game as a whole does not feel particularly bad.
“Today there were already much better shots, but the setup on the course is tight. My playing style is too aggressive for this course. The flags were in difficult ‘pockets’ today, and missing them leads to an unplayable spot. There were six of those spots on the shorts side again today, and you can’t hit them within five metres without perfect execution. Even the bogeys were often good performances from spots where you can’t even get to the green from around it,” said Lindell.
Despite an unsuccessful “moving day,” Lindell still has a lot to gain in the competition in terms of ranking points and prize money. The Porvoo native will be looking for a positive end to the season opener with a smarter game strategy.
“Here, it would be better to just hit the middle of the green. Rarely is there a threat of a three-putt, although today there was one on the 17th hole. That was a difficult phase. It feels like we are really close to a good overall result, but we are not quite there yet. The only thing we can do is to improve. Tomorrow we have one more round to play, and then we’ll be looking ahead to next week’s competition,” Lindell summed up.
Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan (-19) has taken a huge lead at the top of the leaderboard. Playing in top form, the Norwegian is a whopping 7 under par after Saturday’s round, with one eagle and five birdies, with four holes remaining.