Lindell fought hard at the back – "We're really close to getting things going."
Oliver Lindell put up a great fight in his opening round, ultimately finishing Thursday with a score of 70 (-2). He managed to make up for his early setbacks brilliantly and rose above the cut line to T61. His front nine included three bogeys, while he made no mistakes on the back nine. His card featured six pars and three birdies.
“The front nine was terrible in terms of results. The biggest problem is still putting – here, the greens have even stronger grain than last week, with long grass growing in different directions. Fortunately, I managed a few good five-metre putts on the back nine, but otherwise everything else went wide. We’re on the right track, but they often veer off course. The finish was great, and luckily we can get out on the course first thing tomorrow morning,” said Lindell.
An error that had long appeared on the scorecard, a bogey on the sixth hole, was corrected after the round to a birdie, which was the correct result for a par five. As a result, Lindell finished three under par on the course’s par-5 holes. However, his tee shots were not as strong as usual, and his good iron play saved what was otherwise a challenging day.
Lindell managed to conjure up an impressive 14 greens in regulation from just six fairway hits.
“It was a fairly typical situation: the shot felt good, but a few wayward drives came back to haunt me on the wet course. I often had to hit muddy balls off the tee, and as we all know, those tend to go wherever they want. Problems start immediately if you don’t hit the fairway. It’s nice to tee off after setting up, when the transfer rule is in effect. On the 7th fairway, my tee shot hit a tree and bounced into the water, which was unfortunate. The ball would have rolled onto the fairway if it had missed the tree, but I managed to make a good bogey.”
The Porvoo native gained a lot of confidence for the final round thanks to his upward trend. A few well-placed putts give him reason to believe that, with time, his putter will also start to perform more consistently. The most important thing, however, is that the player himself feels good and has a bright outlook on the future.
“I firmly believe that tomorrow’s results will be better. We are very close to really getting going, but it is still waiting to happen. We need to eliminate silly mistakes. On the ninth hole, I hit the only spot on an easy hole that you can’t miss. A 90-metre bunker shot into the wind from a bad lie quickly turns a birdie into a bogey. There was room to hit anywhere else.”
Lindell will start his second round early on Friday morning at 7:20 a.m.
Eugenio Chacarra, who played in the first groups of the morning, took the lead in the competition, while Christiaan Burke, who played in the last groups, finished with a score of -9. The South Africans performed as expected, with seven of their players finishing in the top 10.