Classy Noren seals Race to Dubai home win in Sweden at the Nordea Masters
Sweden’s Alex Noren thrilled the huge home crowds by cruising to victory in the Nordea Masters with a one under par 71 in the final round. The 32 year old, who won this event by eight shots in 2011, began the day with a two stroke lead and steadily plotted his way to his fourth European Tour title, starting birdie-bogey and then reeling off 15 consecutive pars before birdieing the last for a 12 under par total.
That was four shots ahead of Dane Søren Kjeldsen (71), who completed a superb fortnight having won last week in Northern Ireland, and six clear of Germany’s Max Kieffer (75), Swedes Jens Dantorp and Sebastian Soderberg (both 74) and Frenchman Alex Levy (71).
In testing conditions on the final day at PGA Sweden National in Malmö, the expected charge of Henrik Stenson never materialised, the World Number Four signing off with a 74 for a share of 13th place.
Player Quotes:
Alex Noren
“I’m so pleased. Now I can relax a bit because it was probably the toughest weekend in terms of wind I’ve ever felt. When you’re in the lead you can think a lot, and it was very tough. I’ve had a few good tournaments but I haven’t played well on the last day. When I’ve had a chance – like at Wentworth, I had a small chance – I’ve had a slow round. I kept my poise and my caddie really helped calm me down.
“The win in 2011 Nordea Masters was very thrilling; this one is very pleasing. I wasn’t too confident coming into this week because I’ve had a tough time in the wind lately and here you really have to hit the right shots to get around. I got better as the week went on. You have to enjoy the good days in this game because you have plenty of bad ones.”
Søren Kjeldsen
:
“I was really determined to come and play well here. I didn’t quite know how to react after last week and I wasn’t sure how much it took out of me, but my caddie Alistair helped a lot and on Tuesday lunchtime we said it’s time to get back to work. I’ve done that and mentally I felt very good. Today was especially pleasing because I learned a lesson last week about looking at leaderboards. I never looked at one today and it helped me a lot. I felt very calm all day, even on the last few holes. It was by far the toughest day today. Alex is an incredible player and I’m very pleased for him winning in his home country.”
Max Kieffer:
“It has been a great week. Obviously I’m a bit disappointed because when you’re in contention on the final day, you want to win it. But it’s another experience I can learn from. It was very tough again. I felt very good this morning and I hit some really nice shots on the first couple of holes. Then on the fourth I hit a spectator on the head and I struggled to handle that to be honest. I three-putted the next hole and made double bogey which was one of the easiest holes today. It was tough to come back from that but I hung in there. And I heard the guy is okay so that’s the main thing.”
