Weekend winners: Noren trebles up to seal Augusta debut
European Tour: British Masters – Alex Noren
Alex Noren was 471st in the world rankings in January 2015, now after his third win in just eight starts he is up to 18th. He is also guaranteed a place at next year’s Masters.
The Swede carded a 69, with birdies at the first two holes and a fourth one at the last after a stunning pitch shot, to finish two clear of Bernd Wiesberger.
Next year’s tournament host Lee Westwood was third after a third 67 in four days, his best finish since his second place behind Danny Willett at Augusta, with a cluster of players, including Graeme McDowell and Tommy Fleetwood, in a share of fourth.
Wiesberger briefly joined Noren at the top of the leaderboard but the Swede also birdied 15 and the Austrian was unable to pick up any more shots.
Noren’s previous victories this term came at the Scottish Open and European Masters. And it is some turnaround, in 2014 he only played two events in 2014 due to career-threatening wrist injuries.
Alex Noren's week in five shots. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/xoiWSh8VSd
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 16, 2016
What Noren said: “It’s very unreal. I never thought about this going into this season. I just worked quite hard and sometimes you get lucky like this. You have to hit the right shots at the right times and I’m very happy.
“I believe in myself, but the big thing is you don’t have to play a perfect game. Just a few parts of your game need to be strong to get a win and I try to stay humble. I know golf is a tough game.”
PGA Tour: Safeway Open – Brendan Steele
Brendan Steele made three birdies to close out a final round 65 and seal only his second ever PGA Tour victory.
The 33-year-old, whose last win on Tour came in 2011, made amends for his final round capitulation just a year ago at the Safeway to take the title ahead of Patton Kizzire with a tournament score of 18-under.
Brendan Steele’s stats for the week:
• Driving Accuracy – T5
• Strokes Gained: Putting – 6th
• Sand Saves – T1 pic.twitter.com/lxCrBVAeei— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 17, 2016
What Steele said: “This one’s awesome. Home state, start the year out, know I’m going back to the Masters – that’s all amazing.
“Then, this is a little bit of redemption from last year. I led through 54 holes here last year and even into the back nine and really struggled. So it’s nice to close it off this way.”
Mark Townsend
Been watching and playing golf since the early 80s and generally still stuck in this period. Huge fan of all things Robert Rock, less so white belts. Handicap of 8, fragile mind and short game
