Lindell smashed the course record on Saturday morning in Barcelona!
Oliver Lindell spent a long time on Friday evening waiting to find out if he’d make the cut for the weekend’s rounds. In the end, he secured his place among the last few to qualify, and the Finn expressed his gratitude for the opportunity. On Saturday, Lindell carded a blistering 65 (-7), which also set a new course record. This meant a massive jump of 54 places in the leaderboard from T61 to T7, with the round still in progress.
The highlight of the hot round came on holes 8–12, where Lindell carded five birdies in a row.
If Lindell had his fair share of excitement after Friday’s round, there’s plenty more in store for him on Saturday. Nexo is offering a hefty prize fund—which increases from week to week—for any new course record set in the competition, provided one wasn’t set in the previous event. The Porvoo native is therefore in with a chance of the £50,000 prize pot, provided no one behind him beats the Finn’s score. There have been rumours on the course that the preferred lies rule will be in force again on Sunday, meaning an official course record cannot be set.
According to Lindell himself, he didn’t experience anything earth-shattering or make any major changes. He was already hitting the ball extremely well on Friday, and continued in the same vein today. He managed no fewer than 16 greens in regulation and a respectable 11 out of 14 fairways. The biggest change came on the greens.
“It was a strong day today; my putting was on the money and I came close to sinking some long ones too. My swing was already good yesterday, but the main difference was that I had more confidence in my putting today. I was actually a bit annoyed about the last hole, as I had a good start but ended up in a block behind the trees. From there, it was a mediocre performance and the only missed putt of the day.”
Lindell has spoken before about the differences between days, when sometimes he struggles to see the putt lines at all, and on other days everything seems crystal clear. Today was clearly the latter. The putts at the start of the round are also very important. He has spoken of the challenges of trusting the putt lines, even if a correctly read line does not result in a successful putt. This can often linger in the subconscious for the following putts.
A round of 65 equals the Finn’s lowest round score on the main tour. Given the challenging nature of his previous tournaments, it came as something of a surprise, and he himself did not even consider the performance to be perfect.
“I did leave a few shots out there on the course today. I had a bit of bad luck on the day’s only bogey. My tee shot on the 13th looked like it was going in halfway down the flight, but the wind pushed the ball slightly and it took a bad bounce and rolled off the green. It looked like it had already stopped five metres out,” said Lindell.
“I hit a perfect tee shot on the 17th but the ball was, by some stroke of luck, in a divot left by one of the eleven players who had gone before us. A brilliant performance, though – now we can look forward to an exciting finish to the day.”
A real surprise contender, Yurav Premlall, has surged to the top of the leaderboard with a score of -13. The young South African is just inside the top 600 in the world rankings. As absurd as it might have sounded on Friday, Lindell is now four strokes off the lead.