Lindell took the lead in the competition with a bogey-free opening round!
Oliver Lindell got off to a fantastic start with a flawless round at the Investec South African Open Championship and shares the lead after the opening round. Alejandro Del Rey, Dean Burmester and Joe Dean share the lead with a score of -5. The lead is likely to remain secure until the end of the day, as most of the players have already completed their rounds.
Lindell had already stated that his only goal for the week was to finish in the top three, which would earn him a place in this summer’s Open Championship. The three best players in the competition who do not already have a place in the Open will earn it. In addition, the best player who does not have a place in the Masters tournament will win it for themselves in South Africa.
“It was a difficult start to the round; I didn’t hit the fairways or greens on the first three holes. On the second hole, among other things, I had to fight for an up & down pair from 85 metres. After that, I made a really small change, and my game started to flow really well. Let’s keep it a secret, since it worked so well. Back-nine played really strongly,” said Lindell with satisfaction.
The Finnish player had a somewhat challenging start to the round, with only one birdie to his name. However, the most important thing was to avoid any poor results. Back-nine, on the other hand, got off to a flying start, with Lindell nailing three birdies on the challenging wind for holes 11-13. The fact that the Porvoo native did not hit the ball exceptionally well today, especially from the tee, which was challenging at times, is testament to his excellent form.
“A warm putter still makes this job quite enjoyable. You know that even if you encounter more difficult holes where you hit weaker shots, everything will fall within two metres at the moment. Today, birdies came from further away, repeatedly from 5-7 metres.”
“There were only few fairways I hit today (6/14). However, after the third hole, I only missed three greens in the final round, so my iron game was hot alongside my strong short game. The strong wind on a couple of holes made it challenging to hit the fairway. This resulted in misses on both sides, but they were often just enough, as the roughest rough is in the immediate vicinity of the fairway. It’s better to hit good shots on the fairway and bad shots well off the fairway,” said Lindell.
Lindell attacks from the top spot on the field on Friday morning at 7:40 a.m.