Lindell hit the ball brilliantly, but his putter was ice cold – "An incomprehensible feeling – luckily this will be over tomorrow."
Oliver Lindell had a mixed day on Saturday in his third round. He played flawlessly on the front nine with three birdies and six pars, but on the back nine he carded three bogeys in addition to one birdie. The round result of -1 keeps Lindell in 30th place with a total score of -4, as he was at the start of the day.
The result was mixed, but the Finns’ own thoughts were unequivocal. The prevailing feeling was one of frustration.
“Fortunately, this will be over tomorrow, and I’ll be able to do something completely different. I hit the ball really well today, but unfortunately, for a change, I missed all my putts throughout the day. I could have had a really low round. On top of that, there were a few incomprehensible setbacks. It feels unbelievable, I don’t understand the whole game at the moment.”
On the last fairway, I hit a lay-up, and my safety play backfired badly. The flag was 125 metres away, and I hit a really hard headwind with an iron from the rough, and I wondered if the shot would make it all the way. The ball flew 30 metres over the flag into the clubhouse stands, and it was only on the green that I realised the ball was out of bounds, which I didn’t even know existed on that fairway. I walked back to hit my fifth shot and sank a 10-metre bogey putt. I’m really confused about the situation,” Lindell said disappointedly.
Porvoo’s ball striking was practically perfect, except for a few challenging par-3s this week. There were twice as many fairway hits as on the opening days (10), and 11 green hits do not tell the whole story. Lindell hit par fives, managing to make three birdies in a row with two strokes on the green. However, his eagle attempts turned into ‘only’ birdies, and improving his greens under regulation statistics is little consolation when his putter is ice cold.
“On holes 10 and 11, I made consecutive bogeys when I missed two two-metre par putts. It feels like the speeds on the greens vary. Putting is anything but fun at the moment. On the first day, it was enjoyable to play when I had to work hard for a par, but now it’s disappointing. This poor putting has been going on for a couple of months, and I’m slowly getting fed up with it. The only thing that helps is to practise more.”
South Africa’s Casey Jarvis remains at the top of the leaderboard alongside American Ryan Gerard, who shot a round of 63, with a score of -16.