Lindell is looking for one last success in India ahead of the finals – “I was intrigued by the rumours of a narrow course where drivers aren’t used”
Oliver Lindell is doing his bit to prepare for the season’s final test before the DP World Tour Finals. This week sees the second tournament of the season in India, for which he has travelled a long way since the start of the week. This marks the Finn’s debut at the DP World India Championship in Delhi, which was held for the first time last year.
“The long journey was behind us by the time we set off straight from Spain to the airport after the tournament and arrived on Monday afternoon. A poor run of form in September in Ireland and England contributed to the decision to head to India to play. It’s important to pick up points at this stage.”
Indian courses are known for being challenging and requiring particular precision, and last year’s tournament will be remembered in particular for the fact that the vast majority of players did not carry a driver in their bags at all. This was something that particularly intrigued Lindell, and he wanted to set out to boost his points tally ahead of the season-closing finals.
“I was interested in the rumours about the narrow course, or the fact that half the players didn’t even have a driver with them for the tournament. From what I’ve seen, the plan is to hit nothing but irons off the tee, as the fairways are surrounded by bushes where you can’t even go looking for the ball. If you hit it there, you’ll always have to play a new tee shot,” said Lindell.
Following Monday’s travel day, a practice round was scheduled for Tuesday, during which Lindell played the back nine, whilst the front nine is due to be played on Wednesday. Getting the ball on the fairways will certainly be the players’ primary objective again this year. A good example is the comparison with last week’s tournament in Madrid, where only 11 players hit the fairway with an accuracy of over 60 per cent. In contrast, in India last year, as many as 90 players hit the fairway with 60 per cent accuracy.
The course’s four par-5 holes were clear scoring opportunities, and are sure to be the easiest holes in this year’s tournament as well.
“Some holes have a bit more space, but even hitting into the rough looks really bad in itself. Today, during my practice round, I hit the fairways well, and the course felt quite easy in that respect. The course isn’t particularly long, and the par-5s can also be reached with two iron-shots, provided you can get a bit of roll on your shot.”
The only winner in the history of this tournament – last year’s champion, Tommy Fleetwood – has arrived to defend his title again this year. However, there are challengers from the very top of the world rankings, with Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai and Robert MacIntyre all set to tee off, to name but a few. A top finish will therefore also require Lindell to perform well.
“We can certainly aim for a top-10 finish again if we play well. This will be the last competition before the finals, so we’re going to give it our all in the final stretch.”
Lindell will tee off on Thursday at 8.50 Finnish time, alongside Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger.