Alex Norén
| Alex Norén | |
|---|---|
 Norén at the 2012 Omega European Masters | |
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Alexander Norén |
| Born |
12 July 1982 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Nationality |
 |
| Residence | Stockholm, Sweden[1] |
| Career | |
| College | Oklahoma State University |
| Turned professional | 2005 |
| Current tour(s) |
European Tour PGA Tour |
| Professional wins | 11 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| European Tour | 10 |
| Challenge Tour | 1 |
| Best results in major championships | |
| Masters Tournament | CUT: 2017, 2018 |
| U.S. Open | T25: 2018 |
| The Open Championship | T6: 2017 |
| PGA Championship | T34: 2011 |
Alexander Norén (born 12 July 1982) is a Swedish professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour and the European Tour.
Early life
Norén was born in Stockholm, where he started playing golf at the Haninge Golf Club.[2] He attended Oklahoma State University in the United States before turning professional in 2005.
Professional career
Norén gained a place on Europe's second tier Challenge Tour by reaching the final stage of the European Tour qualifying school at the end of 2005. In his rookie season he claimed his maiden professional victory at the Rolex Trophy, and ended the year in 3rd place on the Challenge Tour Rankings to graduate to the elite European Tour for 2007.
Norén had a solid rookie season on the European Tour in 2007 and improved on that the following year to finish in 31st place on the Order of Merit. He made the cut at the 2008 Open Championship and was in the top 10 going into day 3, before eventually finishing in a tie for 19th place.
Norén won his first title on the European Tour in September 2009 at the Omega European Masters, where he finished 20 under par to win by two strokes over Bradley Dredge.[3] Norén finished the season ranked 25th on the Race To Dubai.
In June 2011, Norén won his second European Tour title at the Saab Wales Open played at The Celtic Manor Resort. He won by two strokes from Grégory Bourdy and Anders Hansen finishing at 9 under par.[4] This victory secured him of a place in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in August. The following month, Norén won his third European Tour title at the Nordea Masters in his home country of Sweden. He won from wire-to-wire, the first time in his career he had achieved this feat, and opened up an eleven-stroke margin after the third round. Despite difficult conditions in the wind on the final day, Norén finished seven strokes ahead of Richard Finch.[5] He finished the season ranked 14th on the Race to Dubai.
After two positive seasons in 2012 and 2013, where he registered third places at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Norén missed most of 2014 with tendonitis in both wrists.[6]
2015–2016
Norén came back to competitions in January 2015; in June he won his fourth European Tour title by capturing the Swedish Nordea Masters for the second time in his career. He won by four strokes from Søren Kjeldsen, having held a two-stroke lead after 54 holes.[7]
In the second half of 2016 Norén would hit outstanding form, winning four in eleven starts on the European Tour. In July he won the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, the event before The Open Championship, for his fifth European Tour victory. He won by a single stroke from the Englishman Tyrrell Hatton. This win continued his trend of holding the 54-hole lead in every event that he had won on tour. It also represented the first time that Norén had won in back-to-back seasons.
After finishing runner-up at the Paul Lawrie Matchplay in August, he won the Omega European Masters in September, beating Scott Hend at the first playoff hole.[8] A month later, he captured his third win of the season at the British Masters at The Grove. The win lifted him to the 18th place of the Official World Golf Ranking.
In November, Norén won his fourth title of 2016 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, capturing $1,166,660, the largest in his career so far. He began the final day six shots behind Wang Jeung-hun only to finished six strokes ahead after a record round of 63 (−9). With the win, he moved to third in the Race to Dubai ranking, and to ninth in the Official World Golf Ranking, becoming only the fourth Swede to enter the top ten of the OWGR after Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson and Jesper Parnevik.[9]
2017–2018
Norén qualified for the PGA Tour for the 2017–18 season through non-member FedEx Cup points. In January 2018, Norén finished runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open after entering the final round with a one stroke lead. Norén lost to Jason Day on the sixth extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. The players had to come back for a Monday finish, after the first five holes could not separate them. Norén then lost to birdie on the sixth extra hole, after his second shot found the water.[10]
In March 2018, Norén had another notable week, when he finished 3rd place in the WGC-Match Play. He progressed all the way through to the semi-finals, where he faced Kevin Kisner. It was a tight match all the way through, with no player more than 1 up. Norén had a putt to win the match on the 18th hole, but it slid by. He would eventually lose in 19 holes, after a misread putt from off the green cost him a bogey. He then beat Justin Thomas, 5 & 3, in the consolation match.
Professional wins (11)
PGA Tour playoff record (0–1)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponents | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2018 | Farmers Insurance Open |   |
Day won with birdie on sixth extra hole Palmer eliminated with birdie on first hole. |
European Tour wins (10)
| Legend |
| BMW PGA Championships (1) |
| Race to Dubai finals series (1) |
| Rolex Series (1) |
| Other European Tour (7) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 Sep 2009 | Omega European Masters | −20 (65-70-63-66=264) | 2 strokes | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| 2 | 5 Jun 2011 | Saab Wales Open | −9 (67-67-71-70=275) | 2 strokes |   |
| 3 | 24 Jul 2011 | Nordea Masters | −15 (67-66-63-77=273) | 7 strokes |  |
| 4 | 7 Jun 2015 | Nordea Masters (2) | −12 (70-68-67-71=276) | 4 strokes | |
| 5 | 10 Jul 2016 | Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open | −14 (70-66-68-70=274) | 1 stroke | |
| 6 | 4 Sep 2016 | Omega European Masters (2) | −17 (69-63-66-65=263) | Playoff | |
| 7 | 16 Oct 2016 | British Masters | −18 (67-65-65-69=266) | 2 strokes |  |
| 8 | 13 Nov 2016 | Nedbank Golf Challenge | −14 (69-67-75-63=274) | 6 strokes |  |
| 9 | 28 May 2017 | BMW PGA Championship | −11 (68-75-72-62=277) | 2 strokes |  |
| 10 | 1 Jul 2018 | HNA Open de France | −7 (73-72-65-67=277) | 1 stroke |  |
European Tour playoff record (1–0)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2016 | Omega European Masters | |
Won with birdie on first extra hole |
Challenge Tour wins (1)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning Score | Margin of victory | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 Aug 2006 | Rolex Trophy | −22 (66-67-62-71=266) | 3 strokes | |
Results in major championships
| Tournament | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | CUT | CUT | |||||||||
| U.S. Open | T51 | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | T25 | |||||
| The Open Championship | T19 | CUT | CUT | T9 | WD | T46 | T6 | T17 | |||
| PGA Championship | T34 | T66 | CUT | T49 | T67 | CUT |
CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied
Summary
| Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| U.S. Open | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 |
| The Open Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 5 |
| PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 |
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 22 | 11 |
- Most consecutive cuts made – 2 (four times)
- Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)
Results in World Golf Championships
Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.
| Tournament | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico Championship | 69 | T20 | T56 | T55 | T14 | |||||
| Match Play | R64 | R32 | QF | 3 | ||||||
| Bridgestone Invitational | T53 | T53 | T28 | T31 | ||||||
| HSBC Champions | T19 | T49 | T54 | T12 | T31 |
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
Team appearances
Amateur
- Eisenhower Trophy (representing Sweden): 2004
- Palmer Cup (representing Europe): 2004 (winners), 2005
Professional
- Royal Trophy (representing Europe): 2010 (winners)
- Seve Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2011
- World Cup (representing Sweden): 2011, 2016
- EurAsia Cup (representing Europe): 2018 (winners)
- Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 2018 (winners)
See also
References
- ↑ Hellsten, CM (8 March 2017). "Alex Norén har utsetts till Stockholms främste idrottare" (in Swedish). Svensk Golf.
- ↑ "Alex Noren - My story". Alex Noren website. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ↑ "Noren edges Dredge to Masters win". BBC Sport. 6 September 2009. Archived from the original on 6 September 2009. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
- ↑ Shuttleworth, Peter (5 June 2011). "Noren wins second European Tour title at the Welsh Open". BBC Sport. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ↑ "Noren triumphs in home country for second win of 2011". Sky Sports. 24 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
- ↑ "Injury keeps Noren away from St Andrews". European Tour. 12 July 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ↑ "Noren the King of Castle Stuart". PGA European Tour. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
- ↑ "Alex Noren buries 30-footer to win Omega European Masters in playoff". Golfweek. 4 September 2016.
- ↑ "With This Win – Alex Noren". PGA European Tour. 13 November 2016.
- ↑ "Jason Day beats Alex Noren on sixth playoff hole to win Farmers Insurance Open". ESPN. Associated Press. 29 January 2018.
External links
- Official website
- Alex Norén at the European Tour official site
- Alex Norén at the Official World Golf Ranking official site
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Won: 17½ – 10½ | ||