There’s not much razzmatazz surrounding Alex Noren. The unassuming Swede can often be as quiet as a Trappist monk with a sair throat but he has made big noises since winning last year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open. That triumph at Castle Stuart was the first of five wins in 10 months as the 34-year-old propelled himself into top-10 of the world rankings. Noren is at Dundonald Links this week to defend his title amid an all-star gathering that is the strongest on the European circuit this season.
He may be flying high in the rarefied air of the global game but Noren, who added the flagship BMW PGA Championship to his collection back in May, tends to be happier ducking about under the radar. “I haven’t always been the most confident person and I’m still not the most confident on the golf course,” admitted Noren, who was at least among kindred spirits with the small gathering of Scottish golf writers. “I play with players I’m really impressed by. There’s not as much intimidation as before. But you look at players like Dustin Johnson and see the distance he hits it off the tee, which plays such a big part in today’s golf. That’s something I want to improve on. Winning the Scottish was big for me confidence wise. It was the biggest win for at that stage of my career. And then you get a double boost after the next one. I haven’t played good in every tournament after the Scottish but the one thing confidence does is that it makes you take the bad shots a little easier. You become a bit kinder to yourself.”
This week’s first visit to Dundonald will provide a different kind of links test to the one Noren experienced at Castle Stuart. “Castle Stuart played a bit more extreme, playing high up for a few holes and then a few holes down,” he said. “This is more like a Birkdale style. Everything is flatter but there are a lot of hills around it and it’s banked up and the greens are very undulating. I think it’s good.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here