Lindell finished fifth in Ireland on his opening round!
Oliver Lindell got off to a strong start at the Amgen Irish Open with a score of 68 (-4). This puts the Finn in joint 5th place, with the afternoon starters still on their rounds.
The competition got off to a strong start, but Lindell's round on Thursday was a different story. The Porvoo native struggled early on, carding two consecutive bogeys at the start of his round, but after that, his scorecard showed only red numbers in addition to par scores. His scorecard showed an impressive six birdies, three of which came on par 5 holes. These were known to be good places to hit the fairway.
"Good work after the first two holes. It's going to be a difficult week on the greens, as they are really soft. Even long irons have to be hit in the air to the flag to get them close. There were putts left on the course today, but there will certainly be more on other days. I guess that in the afternoon, with soft greens, it will be really challenging to sink putts," Lindell summed up.
Before the competition began, Lindell said that avoiding rafs would be key. Many players struggled, especially around the greens in the deep rough. Lindell did a great job of keeping the ball on the fairway, thanks in large part to his good opening game. In the opening round, he hit the fairway 11 times out of 14 attempts, which was a big part of his success on the day.
"Your fairway hit percentage has to be high this week if you want to do well here. Rory was naturally followed by a large crowd in the morning, but otherwise it was still fairly quiet."
Of the morning starters, Spain's Nacho Elvira was the fastest. The leader of the competition is only two strokes ahead of Lindell with a score of -6. The other Finnish competitor, Tapio Pulkkanen, has also had a good start to the competition. The Kotka native is at -2 after five holes. The competition was then interrupted when the greens became unplayable due to rain.
Lindell will tee off for his second round from the 10th tee on Friday at 3:40 p.m. Finnish time.