New putter brings confidence on the greens – Lindell got off to a brilliant start at Wentworth
Oliver Lindell got off to a strong start in his first Rolex Series event at Wentworth in England. The Finn played a round of -5 in the opening round of the star-studded competition, which puts him in eighth place at the finish line. Among the five players who finished under par was Justin Rose, who has won 12 times on the PGA Tour and 11 times on the DP World Tour.
"It was a good opening day, even though I hit some weak approaches on the par-5s at the end and didn't get very good positions for the rest of the round. There was water on the 17th hole, which caused my club to slip under the ball on my third shot, and on the last hole I would have needed a perfect iron shot to get on the green. My pace slowed down on the last few holes, and my birdie putts fell short. Overall, though, it was a great start to the tournament," said Lindell.
The only blemish on the Porvoo native's scorecard came on the 3rd hole, but after this bogey, his card featured one eagle, four birdies and 12 pars. As in previous tournaments, his shooting was very strong on the opening day, hitting the fairway 11 times out of 14 attempts and scoring 12/18 on the greens. His putting had also improved significantly from last week's opening rounds, and the reason for this was found behind the changes.
"The missed par putt on the third hole was actually from four metres, even though it was incorrectly marked as one metre. However, I made up for it on the fourth hole with a magnificent 3-wood shot, which rolled just off the green, but I putted well from the fairway to sink an eagle. I also sank a birdie on the 9th hole from outside the green. The new putter I switched to for this tournament feels good."
The new putter is the same model, but it has a different line on the face that is easier on the eye and suits Lindell better than the previous one.
The day turned out to be longer than planned when a thunderstorm hit the Wentworth course in the middle of the round. However, Lindell got through the day with only a few short rain showers.
"On the 12th hole, I had just hit a great shot from the bunker right on the flag when the tournament was interrupted for an hour due to thunderstorms. I had to wait indoors for my one-metre birdie putt."
Frenchman Tom Vaillant and Sweden's Ludvig Åberg have been the fastest players in the opening round so far, with scores of -8. This means that Lindell will be just three strokes behind the leaders going into the second day. Lindell will start his second round on Friday at 4:20 p.m. Finnish time, provided that the players finish their rounds today before dark.