Alex Norén


Alexander Norén is a Swedish professional golf er who currently plays on the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

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 to, he finally chosed to give his priority to golf.
As a 14 year old, he won the unoffical Swedish Youth Championship, Föreningsbanken Cup, at his age level, scoring 146 over 36 holes at Rya Golf Club.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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.
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. 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. 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.

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.
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.

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, score, three shots behind winner Michael Thompson.

Professional wins (11)

European Tour wins (10)

No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory		Runner-up
16 Sep 2009Omega European Masters1−20 2 strokes Bradley Dredge
25 Jun 2011Saab Wales Open−9 2 strokes Grégory Bourdy, Anders Hansen
324 Jul 2011Nordea Masters−15 7 strokes Richard Finch
47 Jun 2015Nordea Masters −12 4 strokes Søren Kjeldsen
510 Jul 2016Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open−14 1 stroke Tyrrell Hatton
64 Sep 2016Omega European Masters1 −17 Playoff Scott Hend
716 Oct 2016British Masters−18 2 strokes Bernd Wiesberger
813 Nov 2016Nedbank Golf Challenge−14 6 strokes Wang Jeung-hun
928 May 2017BMW PGA Championship−11 2 strokes Francesco Molinari
101 Jul 2018HNA Open de France−7 1 stroke Russell Knox, Julian Suri,
Chris Wood

1Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour
European Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
12016Omega European Masters Scott HendWon with birdie on first extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (1)

Challenge Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
12006Kai Fieberg Costa Rica Open Johan AxgrenLost to birdie on third extra hole

Playoff record

PGA Tour playoff record
No.YearTournamentOpponentsResult
12018Farmers Insurance Open Jason Day, Ryan PalmerDay won with birdie on sixth extra hole
Palmer eliminated with birdie on first hole

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied

Summary

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
Championship69T20T56T55T14T62
Match PlayR64R32QF3T17
InvitationalT53T53T28T31T12
ChampionsT19T49T54T12T31T18

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

Team appearances

Amateur
Professional