Triplabogi paid for the top spot – Lindell: "Silly putting today"
Oliver Lindell got off to a brilliant start in Bahrain, just like last year. He racked up an impressive eight birdies on the opening round, finishing with a score of 67 (-5). However, there was a major blemish on his scorecard when the Finn, who was in full flow, made a triple bogey on the 14th hole.
“I hit the only weak drive of the day to the right rough, but it left me with an attractive lie to attack the green. I started to hit with a mini driver, but the club caught the rough hard and opened up to the right desert. There were a few bushes there, where the ball probably disappeared. The ball was never found, and I had to hit my fourth shot from the same spot after a drop. The drop sank deeper into the rough, and I couldn’t get anywhere from there. I followed up with a weak approach and a bad putt, and the triple was complete,” Lindell recounted.
“I was in a great flow and just went for it without fear. It worked out well, and then I really hit my stride. I pulled myself together and finished the most difficult holes of the round well.”
Despite one mistake, Lindell was one of the best players in the morning session and will certainly remain in contention for the top spots after the afternoon players have finished. The Virvik representative missed only two fairways and one green during the day. Based on these statistics, his hitting is almost perfect, but his warm putter was particularly evident on the scoreboard.
“There was some crazy putting today. I sank three putts from over ten metres, the last of which (on the 17th hole) was about 15 metres from the lower level. My putting statistics will look very good, as I sank a lot of long putts. I also hit 17 greens in regulation, which helps, but I didn’t hit them very close to the flag. A few of them went past the five-metre mark, but I can’t be anything but satisfied,” said Lindell.
“What’s the point of playing when the putter has been warm for three weeks straight? It was a strong performance all day long.”
Lindell is sixth on the leaderboard, while the afternoon players are just getting started on their round. Spain’s Alejandro Del Rey shot the best score of the morning, -7. Without a triple bogey on his card, Lindell would be leading the competition for the morning, but even now he is only two strokes behind the leader. Lindell, who has recently performed well without bogeys, has unfortunately taken a step back with several bogeys and higher scores.
The second round will begin tomorrow at 10:40 a.m. Finnish time. Lindell will start his round from the tenth tee on Friday.