Alex Norén

Alexander Norén (born 12 July 1982) is a Swedish professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

Alex Norén
Norén at the 2012 Omega European Masters
Personal information
Full nameAlexander Norén
Born (1982-07-12) 12 July 1982
Stockholm, Sweden
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Nationality Sweden
ResidenceStockholm, Sweden[1]
Jupiter, Florida
Career
CollegeOklahoma State University
Turned professional2005
Current tour(s)European Tour
PGA Tour
Former tour(s)Challenge Tour
Professional wins11
Highest ranking8 (28 May 2017)[2]
(as of 16 August 2020)
Number of wins by tour
European Tour10
Asian Tour2
Challenge Tour1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentT62: 2019
PGA ChampionshipT22: 2020
U.S. OpenT25: 2018
The Open ChampionshipT6: 2017

Early life

Norén was born in Stockholm, first tried golf at 4 years of age and started playing at Haninge Golf Club. Practicing other sports too, he finally chosed to give his priority to golf.[3]

As a 14 year old, he won the unofficial Swedish Youth Championship, Föreningsbanken Cup, at his age level, scoring 146 over 36 holes at Rya Golf Club.[4]

15 years of age, he attended the Swedish upper secondary sports school, to combine studying with golf training. He was also employed as junior editor at Svensk Golf, the official magazine of the Swedish Golf Federation.

Amateur career

He represented Sweden as an amateur on all levels. He was part of the Swedish team winning the 2002 European Youths' Team Championship at Gdansk G&CC, Poland.[5][6] He also represented Sweden at the 2004 Eisenhower Trophy in Río Grande, Puerto Rico, were the Swedish team finished as bronze-medalists and Norén tied 3rd individually.

He attended Oklahoma State University in the United States.

Professional career

Norén turned professional at the end of 2005 and gained a place on Europe's second tier Challenge Tour by reaching the final stage of the European Tour qualifying school. 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.[7] 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.[8] 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 at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club 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.[9] 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.[10]

2015–2016

Norén came back to competitions in January 2015; in June he won his fourth European Tour title by capturing the Nordea Masters in Sweden for the second time in his career. He won by four strokes from Søren Kjeldsen, having held a two-stroke lead after 54 holes.[11]

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 at Castle Stuart, 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.[12] 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 finish 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.[13]

2017–2018

In May 2017, Norén won the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour.

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.[14]

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.

In July 2018, Norén won the HNA Open de France on the European Tour. This event was held at Le Golf National outside of Paris, France.

In September 2018, Norén qualified for the European team participating in the 2018 Ryder Cup. Europe defeated the U.S. team 17 1/2 to 10 1/2. Coincidentally, the event was also held at Le Golf National. Noren went 2–1–0 and won his singles match against Bryson DeChambeau, playing in the last game on Sunday. Norén secured his win when he holed a long birdie putt on the 18th hole, the very last shot of the whole event, stating the final result and causing the European team to celebrate on the 18th green.[15]

2019–2020

Norén could not maintain his good form through 2019 and fell in the Official World Golf Ranking from 19th at the end of 2018 to 75th a year later. His best 2019 finish on the European Tour as well as on the PGA Tour was tied 11th at the 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland.

On 26 July 2020, Norén had his best PGA Tour finish in over two years, when he tied 3rd at the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota, with a 268, (−16) score, three shots behind winner Michael Thompson.

Professional wins (11)

European Tour wins (10)
Legend
BMW PGA Championships (1)
Race to Dubai finals series (1)
Rolex Series (2)
Other European Tour (7)
No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory		Runner(s)-up
1 6 Sep 2009 Omega European Masters1 −20 (65-70-63-66=264) 2 strokes Bradley Dredge
2 5 Jun 2011 Saab Wales Open −9 (67-67-71-70=275) 2 strokes Grégory Bourdy, Anders Hansen
3 24 Jul 2011 Nordea Masters −15 (67-66-63-77=273) 7 strokes Richard Finch
4 7 Jun 2015 Nordea Masters (2) −12 (70-68-67-71=276) 4 strokes Søren Kjeldsen
5 10 Jul 2016 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open −14 (70-66-68-70=274) 1 stroke Tyrrell Hatton
6 4 Sep 2016 Omega European Masters1 (2) −17 (69-63-66-65=263) Playoff Scott Hend
7 16 Oct 2016 British Masters −18 (67-65-65-69=266) 2 strokes Bernd Wiesberger
8 13 Nov 2016 Nedbank Golf Challenge −14 (69-67-75-63=274) 6 strokes Wang Jeung-hun
9 28 May 2017 BMW PGA Championship −11 (68-75-72-62=277) 2 strokes Francesco Molinari
10 1 Jul 2018 HNA Open de France −7 (73-72-65-67=277) 1 stroke Russell Knox, Julian Suri,
Chris Wood

1Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour

European Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
1 2016 Omega European Masters Scott Hend Won with birdie on first extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (1)
No.DateTournamentWinning ScoreMargin of
victory		Runners-up
1 20 Aug 2006 Rolex Trophy −22 (66-67-62-71=266) 3 strokes Johan Axgren, Gareth Davies

Challenge Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
1 2006 Kai Fieberg Costa Rica Open Johan Axgren Lost to birdie on third extra hole

Playoff record

PGA Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.YearTournamentOpponentsResult
1 2018 Farmers Insurance Open Jason Day, Ryan Palmer Day won with birdie on sixth extra hole
Palmer eliminated with birdie on first hole

Results in major championships

Results not in chronological order in 2020.

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
Tournament 20192020
Masters Tournament T62
PGA Championship T54 T22
U.S. Open CUT
The Open Championship T11 NT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary
TournamentWins2nd3rdTop-5Top-10Top-25EventsCuts made
Masters Tournament00000031
PGA Championship00000186
U.S. Open00000172
The Open Championship00002596
Totals0000272715
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 2 (five times)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

Results in The Players Championship
Tournament 201720182019
The Players Championship 10 T17 CUT
  Top 10

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

Results in World Golf Championships

Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.

Tournament20092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Championship 69 T20 T56 T55 T14 T62
Match Play R64 R32 QF 3 T17
Invitational T53 T53 T28 T31 T12
Champions T19 T49 T54 T12 T31 T18
  Top 10
  Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

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See also

References
  1. Hellsten, CM (8 March 2017). "Alex Norén har utsetts till Stockholms främste idrottare" (in Swedish). Svensk Golf.
  2. "Week 21 2017 Ending 28 May 2017" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  3. "Alex Noren - My story". Alex Noren website. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  4. "Rafflande avslutning" [Exiting finish]. Svensk Golf (in Swedish). No. 9. September 1996. pp. 109–111.
  5. European Youths Team Championship European Golf Association
  6. Jansson, Anders (2004). Golf – Den stora sporten [Golf – The Great Sport] (in Swedish). Swedish Golf Federation. pp. 189, 197, 201. ISBN 91-86818007.
  7. "Noren edges Dredge to Masters win". BBC Sport. 6 September 2009. Archived from the original on 6 September 2009. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  8. Shuttleworth, Peter (5 June 2011). "Noren wins second European Tour title at the Welsh Open". BBC Sport. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  9. "Noren triumphs in home country for second win of 2011". Sky Sports. 24 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  10. "Injury keeps Noren away from St Andrews". European Tour. 12 July 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  11. "Noren the King of Castle Stuart". PGA European Tour. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  12. "Alex Noren buries 30-footer to win Omega European Masters in playoff". Golfweek. 4 September 2016.
  13. "With This Win – Alex Noren". PGA European Tour. 13 November 2016.
  14. "Jason Day beats Alex Noren on sixth playoff hole to win Farmers Insurance Open". ESPN. Associated Press. 29 January 2018.
  15. "Europe wins back Ryder Cup, beating US 17 1/2-10 1/2". The Hamilton Spectator. The Canadian Press. 30 September 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
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