So it would make sense that a golfer looking for some short-game advice would turn to Alex Noren. Even a fellow Ryder Cupper like Thomas Pieters. Noren is a 10-time DP World Tour winner, and he’s capable of pulling off shots around the green that would even impress Phil Mickelson.

Ahead of this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Pieters approached Noren for some pitching tips. And boy, is he thankful that he did.

Check it out as Noren offers some hands-on instruction, then watches as Pieters instantly turns into a short-game wizard by hitting a pitch to within inches of the hole. You love to see golf tips click right away like this:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Thomas Pieters (@thomaspietersgolf)

Pretty snazzy. And pretty kind of Noren to help out a competitor on the eve of the first big DP World Tour event of the year. If Noren ever needs help on snapping golf clubs, there’s a big Belgian who owes him now.

The post WATCH: Thomas Pieters gets pitching lesson from Alex Noren in Abu Dhabi, immediately turns into short-game wizard appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Let’s recall the situation: Noren was on the 18th tee at the Old Course at St Andrews, 13-under for the tournament, two back of playing partner Ryan Fox and in a three-way tie for third place. Noren had to try to be aggressive on the iconic home hole of the Home of Golf, a reachable par 4 from the tee with a driver. Unfortunately, though, Noren’s aggressive swing started leaking right, which is the one thing you cannot, repeat, cannot, have happen off the tee on the 18th at the Old Course.

As the ball faded toward Links Road and appeared destined to land out of bounds, Noren got his kiss from above.

Alex Noren finds the green on the 18th after a VERY lucky bounce ?#DunhillLinks pic.twitter.com/evG7ZwGdPK

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 2, 2022

How about that? Right off Rusacks Hotel! Now granted, the bounce could have wound up a little closer to the hole, giving him a better chance at a legitimate eagle try to see if he could catch Fox. But what resulted was far greater than the alternative. “You can’t even begin to think. If he holes that putt for 2 …” said TV commentator Jay Townsend, his sentence finished by a fellow broadcaster: “It would be the greatest break I’ve ever seen.”

Incredibly, Noren nearly did just that, missing the 67-foot putt he had by about a foot. He’d knock what was left for birdie to polish off the closing 69 and finished tied for second with Callum Shinkwin at 14-under, one back of Fox.

If you think this isn’t necessarily all that big a deal, consider the potential fall-out for this T-2 finish that might have been a T-4 or worse. Noren made €422,633.33, roughly double what would have been the case even with just a T-3 finish.

More importantly, with the T-2 showing, Noren jumped up from 56th in the World Ranking to 50th. Being inside the top 50 on October 3 doesn’t get you into major championships the way it would on January 3, but it’s a move that potentially will help Noren down the road as tries to secure spots into 2023’s biggest tournaments. He played in only the PGA Championship and US Open this year, missing the cut in both, and hasn’t played in the Masters since 2019.

Additionally, the T-2 finish jumped him from 60th to 23rd on the DP World Tour season-long ranking. He’ll easily be among the top 60 and qualify to play in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next month. He can now play the rest of the autumn in PGA Tour events (he has a card for the 2022-23 season having been in the top 125 on last season’s FedEx Cup ranking) in hopes of continuing to boost that World Ranking and set himself up for 2023.

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The post WATCH: Incredibly lucky bounce on the 18th at St Andrews might get Alex Noren into the majors in 2023 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

To be fair to the 10-time DP World Tour winner, the choice wasn’t that quite that easy, with Noren being the first alternate for the final major of the year. That being said, it was an interesting decision to fly to California for a few reasons. A decision the 40-year-old Swede is undoubtedly kicking himself over now.

On Thursday morning, Justin Rose withdrew from the Open, leaving the door open for someone else. With Noren not there, the coveted spot in the field went to Rikuya Hoshino. Ouch. Later, Erik van Rooyen became a second WD and he was replaced by Aaron Rai. Again, ouch.

Look, being an alternate at a golf tournament is like flying on standby. It’s a bit of a risk because you can go through a lot of effort and get nothing out of it. But, again, Noren, one of the highest-ranked players in the world (No. 66) not in the field at St Andrews, was the first alternate. And this is the Open Championship. At St. Andrews! And he was already in Scotland after finishing T-30 at last week’s Scottish Open! Instead he flew halfway around the world! To play in the Barracuda Championship!

Making the decision even more questionable is the fact that Noren is currently No. 75 on the FedEx Cup points list and in no danger of losing his PGA Tour card for next season. And yet he passed up a possible opportunity to play in an Open Championship at the Home of Golf. Pretty wild.

At least he wouldn’t have gotten a fun pairing. Wait, never mind! Noren would have played with Ryder Cup teammates Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. It doesn’t get much more fun than teeing it up with Moliwood!

Of course, if Noren winds up winning the Barracuda Championship, he’ll have made the right decision. Maybe.

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That’s Big Vik’s left hand, in case you don’t recognise the mangled appendage you’re looking at. It looks like he stuck it down the garbage disposal and flicked the switch if the garbage disposal was filled with bees for some reason. It’s the visual embodiment of not $%#@!&* around and precisely the kind of capital-G Grind the upper echelon of the PGA Tour requires.

All that said, Hovland isn’t living La Vida Loca just yet. He’s not slurping Cristal out of the Claret Jug or strolling around his supermodel girlfriend’s penthouse wearing nothing but a green jacket. The Ferrari is still just a Ford, if you want to keep it PG. But if those callouses are any indication, big things are coming. Just ask Jordan Spieth.

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With the two golfers playing only for pride, and Noren leading 1 up, DeChambeau stuck his approach on the 18th hole at Le Golf National to borderline gimme range. It looked like a tough week for the young American would at least end with a confidence-boosting half point. Think again. Instead, Noren drained a birdie putt from about 50 feet to cap Europe’s 17½-10½ romp. Here’s the putt in case you don’t remember (Or you’re a big Team Europe fan):

Alex Noren drained a putt from DEEP to finish off the #RyderCup in France. ??? pic.twitter.com/6s4iv0B6KU

— PGA of America (@PGA) October 1, 2018

A little more than a year later, Noren was back at Le Golf National for this week’s French Open. Cameras were rolling as the Swede attempted to recreate his famous putt, and wouldn’t you know it, he made it again. Check it out:

381 days on, Alex retries his famous Ryder Cup putt ??? pic.twitter.com/EKt1dizwc0

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 16, 2019

Amazing. The U.S. never had a chance that week, did they?

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The post Padraig Harrington gets wish as captain’s picks for 2020 European Ryder Cup team go from four to three appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Branden Grace finished T-34 on Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, shooting a one-under 287 for the week at Leopard Creek Golf Club, but it was as good as a victory for the 30-year-old South African. The finish, 13 strokes back of winner David Lipsky, in the last European Tour event of 2018 will likely be enough to keep him at the No. 48 spot in the World Ranking when the year’s final list comes out in two weeks.

And with that he’ll be playing in the Masters in April.

All players in the top 50 in the year’s final ranking earn invitations to compete at Augusta National Golf Club. Grace is one of 13 golfers in the projected top 50 who hasn’t already qualified for the first major of 2019.

Here’s a look at the projected final ranking of the year:

The Top 50 at the end of 2018! #OWGR pic.twitter.com/vKkYtvDJTj

— Nosferatu (@VC606) December 16, 2018

And here’s a list of the others that are projected to qualify who weren’t in the field already:
Alex Noren
Tyrrell Hatton
Rafa Cabrera-Bello
Eddie Pepperell
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Ian Poulter
Li Haotong
Thorbjorn Olesen
Matt Wallace
Lucas Bjerregaard
Emiliano Grillo
Branden Grace

No. 51 on the projected final ranking is Aaron Wise, who already is going to Augusta by virtue of his AT&T Byron Nelson win in May. Of those between Nos. 51 and 60, seven must now find another way to earn a spot into the Masters.

52 Ben An
53. Shugo Imahira
54. Brian Harman
56. Abraham Ancer
57. Luke List
59. Alexander Bjork
60. Daniel Berger

Between January and April, winners of any PGA Tour event awarding full FedEx Cup points will earn a spot. Also players inside the top 50 in the World Ranking a week before the Masters will be added to the field.

To those still on the outside looking in, best of luck gentlemen. You’ve got your work cut out for you.

The post 13 golfers projected to earn Masters invites through the final World Ranking of 2018 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
For 13 holes, Alex Noren was having about as boring a round as you could imagine at the Hero World Challenge. He failed to make a single birdie on the front nine, carding a one-over 37 before making the turn and adding another bogey at the par-4 10th at Albany. Finally, he made his first birdie at the par-3 12th to stop the bleeding.

After a par at 13, Noren proceeded to put together one of the most insane final five-hole stretches you’ll see all season. His lifeless round suddenly became the most electric one on the golf course, starting with a birdie at the par-4 14th and an eagle at the par-5 15th. All that work was undone at 16 though, as Noren made a disastrous triple-bogey-seven to fall back to one over for the day. Then, at the par-3 17th, this happened:

Last four holes for Alex Noren …
• Birdie
• Eagle
• Triple bogey
• Hole-in-one ?

Golf is a funny game. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/oxNqMjM964

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) 1 December 2018

Not a bad bounce back, even though it didn’t even make up all three shots from that triple. This is how I imagine my first hole-in-one will come some day, either immediately after a triple or right before a triple that ruins everything.

Noren was able to get that third stroke back at 18, making a 15-foot birdie putt to post a colorful two-under 70:

He’ll begin the final round five back at eight-under, which has him in a tie for eighth with Patrick Reed and Justin Rose.

The post Alex Noren’s final five-hole stretch (which included a hole-in-one) was about as insane as it gets appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
For all that the closing holes and four-man playoff won by Matt Wallace provided in terms of drama and excitement on Sunday at the Made in Denmark, for many the main focus of four days at Silkborg Ry Golf Club—European Ryder Cup skipper Thomas Bjorn’s home course—was the climax to the qualifying for team the Dane will take to Le Golf National just outside Paris later this month.

RELATED: Matt Wallace takes third European Tour title of 2018 in Denmark

With seven automatic qualifiers for the European Ryder Cup team—Francesco Molinari, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Alex Noren, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm—already in place, Thorbjorn Olesen’s T-20 finish was enough to claim the eighth and final spot. Olesen’s only possible challengers, Matt Fitzpatrick (T-7) and Eddie Pepperell (T-56,) both came up short of the victory needed (given that Olesen finished lower than T-7) for one of them to be on the plane to France later this month.

“It feels great,” Olesen said. “And such a relief at the end of a tough week. It has been a different kind of pressure. It’s been an incredible summer. I’ve played well, and it has been a lot of fun. I’ve watched the Ryder Cup since I was 6 years old. It looks so special. But it will help me having Thomas as captain. I hope I can get a few points for him and Europe. We look like having a great team.”

Bjorn will name the last four members of Europe’s squad on Wednesday at 9 a.m. EST.

“Now I know eight, I have to think about four,” said Bjorn with a smile. “It has been good to see Thorbjorn make the team. He’s played some great golf over the summer and thoroughly deserves his place.

“The one thing I’ve said to all of the guys is that this is not just about making the team. Now it is about getting out there and winning points. It’s now about playing in the event. It’s about what happens at the end of September, not the end of August.”

Not quite yet though. With five rookies already in his line-up, it is likely that Bjorn will lean towards past Ryder Cup experience when completing his squad. It would certainly come as no surprise to hear that Henrik Stenson, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter will be three of his picks. Perhaps his biggest decision will be whether or not to omit the out-of-form Sergio Garcia in favor of one from, say, Irish Open champion Russell Knox, the ever-consistent Rafa Cabrera-Bello or, as was the case with Thomas Pieters two years ago, an in-form birdie-machine like Wallace.

Still, while he was understandably giving nothing specific away, Bjorn did provide some hints as to his thinking.

“There is always the not knowing what players will be like in the Ryder Cup,” he said. “You have to get a feeling of how they are going to react in that environment. It is different. But when you look at the rookies this time, individually they have all won big events. And now I have to balance out the team. I have a lot of thinking to do over the next few days. But I’m getting there in my head.

“I’m pretty set on two or three names. But there is some discussion to be had. I know how I want to mix and match the players. But there is one little doubt in my head. Whatever though, this is going to be an exciting team. So many new guys will bring that excitement. I’m looking forward to it. I hope we can do Europe proud.”

The post Thorbjorn Olesen grabs Europe’s final automatic Ryder Cup qualifying spot as Thomas Bjorn mulls captain’s picks appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
At the start of the final round of the HNA Open de France, a wee bit of history making was in the offing. Not once in the long and colorful narrative of the event had a Swede lifted the title, but with Marcus Kinhalt leading at 10 under par that little discrepancy looked like it might be consigned to the dustbin of, well, history.

Then there were, unusually on the European Tour, the Americans. Two of them—Justin Thomas and Julian Suri—to be precise. Both were four under par, and on the Albatros course at Le Golf National, where danger lurks almost everywhere in the shape of jungle-like rough and multiple water hazards, they were hardly out of contention in their quest to become only the fourth golfers from the USA to claim the historic trophy. The others (surely appearing together in a sentence for the first time) are Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson and Barry Jaeckel.

It wasn’t to be for either Suri or Thomas as things turned out. So there was no American victory in Paris. Not for at least another three months, when the Ryder Cup will be played at Le Golf National. But, sure enough, the Swedish record of futility is over.

Which is not to say rising star Kinhult got the job done. He did not, a closing 76 consigning the 21-year-old to a T-5 finish alongside Jon Rahm. Courtesy of a final-round 67 and with, among the leading players, an almost unique ability to complete the treacherous closing stretch in something less than par, Alex Noren is the French Open champion. Two birdies in the last three holes took the now 11-time European Tour winner to eight under par for the week and, not incidentally, made him €1,008,578 richer.

Related: Watch Justin Thomas nearly chip-in for birdie off bridge on 18th hole at French Open

Consider the following. While Noren played those final four holes—the so-called “Loop of Doom”—in two under par, only Russell Knox, one of the three runners-up, managed four regulation figures over the same stretch. Elsewhere, it was carnage. Another of those in second place, Chris Wood, dropped shots on the 15th and 17th to come up one-stroke short. Most notably, however, Suri was three over par for the last four, including a desperately disappointing double-bogey 6 on the 18th where his approach found the water short of the green.

Mention should also be made of Rahm. Two shots back by the end, the burly Spaniard was hamstrung by a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 12th. Badly disturbed by a clicking camera on his backswing as he teed off, his ball bounded for the fescue right of the fairway, Rahm hacked and slashed his way up the 433 yarder, only managing to reach the green with his fourth gouge from the hay. To say he was unhappy at this unfortunate turn of events would be something of an understatement.

As for Thomas, the World No. 2—the only member of the field likely to return as part of the away team in the upcoming Ryder Cup—professed himself happy enough with a week in which he broke or equaled par all four days.

The fast-finishing Noren was even happier though. His weekend total of 132 (65-67) was the best over the closing 36 holes by four strokes.

“I never thought I was going to win,” he said with disarming honesty. “But anything can happen on this course. On the first two days I never really played my best golf. But I played much better on the weekend. It was tough to watch my opponents play down the stretch, but that is golf. I’m very happy.

“All I was trying to do was get to maybe seven or eight under. Through the years I have always had a tough time here, mostly because I was not hitting enough fairways. But I did that over the last two rounds this year. It is so demanding and so tough out there, especially when you stand on the tees.”

As for the Ryder Cup, Noren, if he was not before, is now a near certainty to make his debut in European colors. But, modest soul that he is, he was taking nothing for granted, at least as far as he will feel while competing in the biennial contest on such a tough lay out.

Tony Marshall/Getty Images
Noren and his wife, Jennifer, celebrate his 11th career European Tour title.

“There was so much pressure today,” Noren continued. “I can only imagine what it will be like in the Ryder Cup. Besides, for now I am more focused on the Open Championship at Carnoustie. I like links golf. And the Open is the best major for me. I’ll be practicing hard for the next week and a half with that in mind.”

Not immediately though. Noren and his wife, Jennifer, planned to stay in Paris for a few days to celebrate her birthday. Quite right, too.

One last thing. By way of some consolation, Knox, Suri and Kinhult claimed the three exempt spots available for this month’s Open Championship at Carnoustie. One more chance for all three to beat Alex Noren.

The post Alex Noren sneaks off with French Open title after the 2018 Ryder Cup course beats up final twosomes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.