Lindell stretched to a dazzling back nine in the top competition – six strokes from the lead
Oliver Lindell made a spectacular comeback in the third round and briefly climbed to tenth place with a total score of -9. The result earned him T12 at the end of the day. The day's round score of -3 was achieved through a two-stage round. The Finn did not achieve any significant successes in terms of his score, and his missed shots ended up in the worst possible places.
"The start was chaotic today. I had a lot of good swings, but my shots went to the left and always to the worst possible places. On top of that, I couldn't get my putts in, so the front nine was lacklustre."
The game took a complete turn when moving to the back nine, and the Porvoo native scored an incredible five birdies on the back nine. The two bogeys on the front nine were quickly forgotten, and a magnificent rise from below 60th place to the top of the leaderboard was a reality.
"From the 8th hole onwards, every hole except the 16th offered a birdie putt of less than six metres. I got my shots right on target. I was a little disappointed that I missed so many putts, even though I sank quite a few. A really low score would have been possible. However, I had a big surge at the end and there is a lot to play for tomorrow," Lindell said happily.
Despite a good round, Lindell was again unable to take full advantage of the par 5s today. As usual, they are places to make shots, but he still managed to get a good score. The only birdie on the par-5 holes came on the 17th, even though the long tee shot was far off the fairway. It is precisely because of the par-5s that the back nine is considerably easier to play than the front nine.
"There is no real difference in difficulty, there are just more par-5s on the back nine. They were left unused today, especially holes 4 and 12, where I hit good second shots on both. One ended up a little long and the other a little short. On the 17th hole, I missed right where I should have and managed to get a birdie."
Sweden's Alex Noren and France's Adrian Saddier share the lead with a score of -15. Lindell will tee off for his final round at 12:20 Finnish time, accompanied by Adrian Otaegui and Francesco Laporta.