Lindell failed to match yesterday's birdie fireworks – three strokes behind the top 3 – "The greens burned badly as the day progressed."
Oliver Lindell’s second day in Bahrain was fairly quiet, especially when compared to yesterday’s birdie spree. He scored half as many birdies as yesterday, i.e. four, while his plus results were the same as yesterday. Yesterday’s card included one triple bogey, while Friday’s included three bogeys. The round result of -1 kept the Finn in a good position at T21 (-6).
Lindell, who started his round on the 10th hole, had already missed more greens after three holes than he had during the entire round yesterday. He also made a few minor mistakes off the tee, and his putter was not in harmony with Lindell today. The bogeys of the day were the result of three putts or short missed putts.
“I missed a lot of greens with good shots, which often landed 5-7 metres short of the flag. My measurements weren’t accurate, and that’s why I got this result. The greens were fast during the day, which made them significantly faster than yesterday. I couldn’t get my speed right, and I put all my putts long from above all day. The weather wasn’t any more difficult than yesterday, but the greens were challenging in the afternoon.”
The best results in the second round were invariably achieved by those who played in the morning, which confirms Lindell’s observations.
In the big picture, Lindell continued to hit the ball strongly off the tee, hitting 10/14 fairways. The Porvoo native did not record a single fairway miss on the first 11 holes. However, the par-3 holes were more difficult than usual, with Lindell hitting only one par-3 onto the green.
“The long putts were followed by two three-putts today, which can largely be explained by the burnt greens. Fortunately, we are still very much in the game, as T4 is only two strokes behind.”
In many tournaments, a “calm” and uneventful second round can be a positive thing, but in Bahrain’s birdie-filled tournament, this is not necessarily desirable. Every round has a player who racks up birdies like clockwork. On Friday, it was Calum Hill (-14), who made a dazzling 11 birdies and seven pars.
The Scot took a comfortable lead at the top of the leaderboard, but Lindell is only two strokes behind the players tied for fourth place.