Lindell's excellent form continues – mini driver in bag brought confidence to opening game in Belgium
Oliver Lindell started the Soudal Open tournament in Belgium with a good round of 69 strokes. The score of -2 is still enough for T16 in the afternoon, with some players still on the course. The front nine went smoothly in cool conditions, with light rain and strong winds, accompanied by two birdies.
Takaysi slipped up with a bogey after his opening shot ended up in a bunker. Lindell made up for this immediately on the next par 3 hole with a five-metre birdie putt. The Porvoo native did not show particularly brilliant shot play on the opening round, but his current basic level is enough for a good performance.
"It was a good day, with most of my shots veering slightly to the right. I was good around the green and my putting worked well, even though I didn't sink any crazy number of putts. It was a steady start, which is a good basis for continuing the competition," said Lindell of his round.
Lindell has been struggling with his driver lately, and changes have been made to avoid large variations in his tee shots. The driver was left out of the bag for the Belgian tournament and replaced with a mini driver. He got along with it so well that every missed shot was only slightly to the right.
"Compared to a 3-wood, it gives you at least 20 metres more length on your tee shots. There are a lot of holes here where you wouldn't even want to hit a driver, so the mini driver is a good club for this course and I have confidence in it. It's only 15 metres shorter than a driver."
The roughs are not the biggest challenge on the course this week either, but the main thing is to stay out of the woods and obstacles and avoid unnecessary penalties and strokes.
"I often hit the fairway on the right side of the tee, which ended up on the rough. However, the roughs are not deep, it's just difficult to estimate how hard the ball will go from there. My irons were also almost without exception on the right today, but I have the afternoon to figure out why that was.”
For those who teed off in the morning, the top spot was set at -6, which is currently held by three players – Joost Luiten, Angel Ayora and Aaron Cockerill. Lindell has taken the title of the hottest Finnish player on the tour, as Tapio Pulkkanen finished the opening day at +1, sharing 90th place.
Lindell's tee time for Friday's round is 3 p.m. Finnish time from the 10th tee.