Alex Noren joined the battle to win the Race to Dubai and confirmed his status as the world’s most in-form golfer in spectacular fashion after the Swede claimed a fourth European Tour title of the season at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
The 34 year old’s six-shot triumph over Korea’s Jeunghun Wang means he overtakes Rory McIlroy in third place in the Race to Dubai and will move inside the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking, having been in 110th position just five months ago after his incredible run of success on the European Tour.
Noren birdied the opening three holes to pile the pressure on Wang, who carried a three-stroke advantage into the final day at Gary Player Country Club but stumbled to a one over par front nine while Noren reached the turn in six under par.
Noren continued his unbeatable level of performance with an eagle at the tenth followed by a birdie at the 11th and, although he dropped his first shot of the day at the 14th, he birdied the 16th and eased home with two pars to sign for a nine under par 63 and a 13 under total.
Wang may have dropped three strokes in the closing four holes, but his final round of 75 guaranteed him second place outright, moving to 15th in the Race to Dubai and into pole position to win the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award with just one event of the 2016 season remaining. Five players shared third spot – Alejandro Cañizares, Victor Dubuisson, Branden Grace, Ricardo Gouveia and Andy Sullivan, with Gouveia and Dubuisson making enough points to qualify for the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The battle to be crowned European Tour Number One is once again ebbing toward a dramatic finale at the DP World Tour Championship, with Henrik Stenson still at the summit after finishing eighth in Sun City, while second-placed Danny Willett rallied to finish in a share of 11th place to keep his hope of leapfrogging Stenson in his own hands with a victory in Dubai.
A fifth victory of the season for Noren in Dubai would need to be supplemented by Stenson finishing in third place or worse for Noren to be crowned Europe’s Number One, while McIlroy needs to successfully defend the DP World Tour Championship and rely on a series of unlikely scenarios to retain the Race to Dubai title.
Player Quotes
Alex Noren: “It’s unbelievable. Waking up today, I thought if I can get a decent round in I might have a chance but it didn’t feel very good yesterday my game wasn’t really there. I tried to get the right feelings for today and it clicked. I don’t think I’ve ever played as good, especially on the greens.
“I’ve got a lot more confidence, having the lead and being up there, and the more you do that the more comfortable you become. Obviously it’s been the season of my life. I tried to get in this tournament for so many years, and when I got in here, to end up winning, it feels unbelievable.
“I was quite nervous coming into this round, playing with Stenson and playing with Grace, in front of a lot of people. And then after starting off the way I did I told myself, “You’ve got to believe you can win this,” and I kept hitting fairways and greens and making the putts and all of a sudden I had a great chance which I managed to take.”
Henrik Stenson: “I have to say first and foremost congratulations to Alex – it was a fantastic performance today and he deserved to win. He has obviously is on an unbelievable run at the moment and in some ways is the man to beat at the moment. Next week is going to be pretty exciting with three of us now really going for the Race to Dubai and watching Alex play the way he did today is kind of inspiring me to really bring my best stuff next week as I will need to play to hold off Danny and him.”
Danny Willett: “It was nice to build on yesterday’s round and play well today. Hopefully we can carry things forward and actually build on what has actually been a pretty good result. I’ve not been excited about playing golf for a few weeks, and it’s nice to have woken up the last two days feeling things are getting better and better. It’s getting back to the stage where, like I said at the beginning of the week to the guys: It’s nice to come back to a place where you’ve got good memories; it’s nice to get a good finish around a golf course that I really like.
“And moving on to next week, we finished fourth there last year. The golf course, it doesn’t necessarily suit my game; I’m not massive off the tee and I can’t take out all the bunkers but it does reward really good mid-iron play. It looks like we are going to have a pretty exciting finish which is what everyone wants to see.”
Final Scores:
274 A Noren (Swe) 69 67 75 63,
280 J Wang (Kor) 68 73 64 75,
281 V Dubuisson (Fra) 69 75 69 68, A Sullivan (Eng) 72 69 68 72, B Grace (RSA) 71 69 71 70, A Cañizares (Esp) 71 68 74 68, R Gouveia (Por) 74 68 72 67,
282 H Stenson (Swe) 69 74 69 70,
283 L Oosthuizen (RSA) 72 66 70 75,
284 J Van Zyl (RSA) 69 69 74 72,
285 D Willett (Eng) 75 74 67 69, R Jacquelin (Fra) 74 72 72 67,
286 D Lingmerth (Swe) 71 72 73 70,
287 J Luiten (Ned) 74 70 74 69, T Fleetwood (Eng) 75 72 71 69,
288 S Kjeldsen (Den) 74 71 71 72, F Zanotti (Par) 70 68 78 72, T Jaidee (Tha) 76 71 70 71, B Dredge (Wal) 73 69 75 71,
289 R Sterne (RSA) 74 70 71 74, L Haotong (Chn) 72 72 73 72, M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 76 67 72 74, R Bland (Eng) 76 71 71 71, G Bourdy (Fra) 74 76 71 68,
290 G Coetzee (RSA) 69 69 82 70, N Elvira (Esp) 75 71 71 73, R Ramsay (Sco) 69 76 73 72, R Fisher (Eng) 68 72 73 77, R Paratore (Ita) 71 73 73 73, C Wood (Eng) 69 69 75 77, T Hatton (Eng) 75 71 72 72,
291 T Aiken (RSA) 70 74 77 70, L Bjerregaard (Den) 72 75 73 71,
292 T Pieters (Bel) 76 73 70 73, A Johnston (Eng) 75 73 73 71, B Hebert (Fra) 74 73 75 70,
293 N Colsaerts (Bel) 74 72 76 71, R Karlberg (Swe) 71 73 75 74,
294 M Siem (Ger) 74 73 73 74, P Larrazábal (Esp) 76 73 78 67, K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 74 72 74 74, M Southgate (Eng) 72 68 82 72, C Schwartzel (RSA) 74 76 68 76,
295 J Lagergren (Swe) 74 72 78 71, D Horsey (Eng) 71 73 81 70, S Hend (Aus) 71 71 73 80, L Jensen (Den) 73 69 80 73, M Kaymer (Ger) 81 75 69 70,
296 J Carlsson (Swe) 73 77 75 71, C Paisley (Eng) 77 73 74 72, D Drysdale (Sco) 76 75 76 69, D Lipsky (USA) 72 75 72 77,
297 M Fraser (Aus) 75 73 75 74, M Ilonen (Fin) 74 75 76 72,
298 R Rock (Eng) 74 73 78 73, M Manassero (Ita) 73 74 76 75, P Harrington (Irl) 76 75 75 72, A Otaegui (Esp) 75 75 75 73, R Cabrera Bello (Esp) 76 72 77 73,
299 R Wattel (Fra) 74 78 74 73, S Lee (Kor) 75 72 79 73, R Goosen (RSA) 73 75 76 75,
301 T Olesen (Den) 77 69 81 74,
302 J Morrison (Eng) 77 71 79 75, M Warren (Sco) 75 73 75 79, A Levy (Fra) 77 75 78 72,
307 J Campillo (Esp) 79 77 80 71, J Quesne (Fra) 70 80 83 74,
310 B Stone (RSA) 76 76 82 76,
314 L Slattery (Eng) 77 78 81 78,
** N Holman (Aus) 77 79 RT 0, F Aguilar (Chi) 68 75 DQ 0,
