Waiting on the final hole saw Lindell narrowly miss out on a top-10 finish
On Friday, after 17 holes, Oliver Lindell was still in the top 10 and just a few strokes off the lead. However, a long wait in challenging wind conditions on the final hole proved costly, dropping the Finn to T15 with a total score of -6.
“There was a long wait on the 18th tee. There was a brisk headwind on the fairway, and yesterday, with the wind blowing from ten o’clock, I’d just managed to get my 7-iron over the water. Today I had to tee off first, and a shot that had gone slightly off course ended up long on what was, in principle, an easy spot for an up-and-down. However, the lie was awful, and I just tried to make a bogey with a lay-up, but I couldn’t sink the two-metre putt. It was quite a sight to see my playing partners immediately reach for a smaller club afterwards,” said Lindell of his final hole.
The trickier part was teeing off from the 14th hole, where Lindell had carded a triple bogey yesterday. Today, he made sure the ball didn’t end up in the water as it had the day before and managed to salvage a good par. On the next hole, however, he carded a bogey, which he made up for with two consecutive birdies before the disastrous final hole.
“The tee on the 14th hole had been moved well forward, as the hole was still quite tricky yesterday. I hit a hybrid from the tee, aiming slightly to the left, and the ball bounced across the road before finally coming to rest in a decent spot. The approach to the 15th was tricky; I had to hit a hard shot with a 50-degree wedge, and it went off perfectly. Still, I don’t understand how it ended up so far out on the edge of the bunker.”
Lindell has made just two bogeys over two rounds and has played a solid game, apart from two holes which are effectively keeping him from the top spot at the moment. He is just five strokes behind the leaders, Antoine Rozner and Cameron Adam (-11), and given his form, it is entirely possible that a few strokes over the weekend could see him close the gap.
Conditions were even more challenging today than they were yesterday, and the wind is expected to pick up further, which is likely to keep scores in check over the weekend.
“The rough weather’s setting in now; on Sunday the wind’s expected to reach up to 10 m/s. If I can manage a couple of rounds of 68 over the weekend, that might even be enough to get me close to victory. Today was a good day all round. The greens were a bit bumpy, and I couldn’t sink my putts quite as well as yesterday. I continued to hit the ball strongly off the tee and, unusually, used both types of curves when needed.”