This week in Turkey, we’re playing on a new pitch – “It’s brilliant to be playing closer to home”
The DP World Tour is heading to Europe for the Turkish Airlines Open. Although the tournament is still part of the Asian Swing, Oliver Lindell is looking forward to the move to Europe.
“It’s great to be playing closer to home again, even though on paper this is still the last tournament of the Asian Swing. Practice has gone well; yesterday I played the front nine and today the back nine in the Pro-Am. The weather should stay good for another couple of days, but we’ll have to see what the weekend brings, as quite heavy rain has been forecast,” said Lindell.
The tournament in Turkey has undergone some changes since last year, with the venue switching from Regnum Carya to National GC, which is also located in Belek. This year’s course lacks a history at DPWT level, but Lindell considers it very similar to the course of recent years. The course has not been over-lengthened, with the par-5s, for example, remaining under 550 metres.
“It’s quite similar to the Caryan course. It’s a good course, even if it’s not quite in such top condition compared to last year. A lot of the trees have been cleared from the course. The surfaces have hardened up massively in just a couple of days. Yesterday the course still felt really easy, but today in the Pro-Am it was already quite tough.”
Last year’s competition in Carya attracted a large crowd of supporters for Lindell as he achieved his best result to date, clearly marking the start of a new upward phase in his career.
Lindell has faced a Finnish colleague in competition for the first time this season, as Tapio Pulkkanen – who lost his DPWT card last season – has qualified for this week’s event.
“Our schedules have clashed a bit, so we didn’t manage to go for a practice round together. We’ve been having lunch and dinner together here again, though.”
Lindell will tee off from the 10th tee on Thursday at 1.10 pm Finnish time. His playing partners for the first two rounds will be Marcus Armitage of England and Dylan Naidoo of South Africa.