Lindell sank some chips and moved close to the top of the leaderboard in Spain – “It’s nice to get a few small bonuses”
Oliver Lindell got off to a strong start at the Open de España in Madrid, carding a 69 (-2) on Thursday in the opening group that teed off from the 10th. Despite the course layout changes, the course has proved even more challenging than expected due to the tight rough and the course set-up. The Finn led the competition for much of the morning’s play, standing at -4 after 10 holes. As the afternoon players set off on their rounds, Lindell was tied for fifth place.
“I got off to a strong start, and it felt as though I was completely in control of my game, even though I wasn’t really hitting the fairways. On the third hole (the 12th of the day), I took three putts, and the next tee shot was actually my first poor shot since the opening hole. The ball bounced off a tree into the water, but I fought my way through the water to save par.”
It would be wrong to call it a collapse, given the difficulties he faced towards the end, and Lindell managed to fight his way to a good round. He became all too familiar with the thick rough during the opening round, as the Porvoo native only hit the fairway on four holes on Thursday. Given that, the result was excellent, and Lindell himself was not fazed by his unusually erratic opening round.
“My opening shot on the fifth was a block to the trees, and I couldn’t save a par of there. The next tee-shot landed just a couple of metres into the rough, but it was really deep. I tried to hit a hybrid from 150 metres, which ended up in a bunker, from where I made a fine up-and-down for par. I managed to sink one more par putt. The rest of the round was more even in terms of my score, but I had to fight hard to put together some sort of result,” Lindell recalled.
His putting, which had been struggling recently, was on form during the opening round. Lindell, known for his soft touch, also showed flashes of his short game around the greens and managed a few bonus chips.
“On holes 17 and 1, I hit little ‘flop shots’ (high lobs) onto the green, and both went in. One was a tighter spot, whilst the other was a straightforward chip-shot. It’s nice to pick up a few little bonuses. The scoring stayed low thanks to some tight roughs.”
As we moved to the heat and high altitude of Spain, the ball flew considerably further than in previous competitions. This, for its part, caused some difficulties towards the end.
“Towards the end, there were some challenges with how the ball flies. Sometimes it flies quite a long way, and sometimes it doesn’t. We still need to fine-tune it a bit for tomorrow. The situation should be clearer tomorrow afternoon, as the ball tends to fly further from 11 o’clock onwards, given that we’re 600 metres above sea level.”
The Spanish players were in fine form this morning, with Eugenio Chacarra (-5) and Angel Ayora (-4) taking the lead in their home tournament.
Lindell will start his second round on Friday at 14.10 Finnish time.