Noren in hunt for first major win after long injury layoff
Alex Noren sat out since last October until last week with a tendon injury, but Sunday he has the chance to win his first major title at the PGA Championship.
The 42-year-old Swede, who two months ago was coaching his daughter's softball team, birdied the last two holes Saturday to fire a five-under par 66.
Noren stood on eight-under 205 for 54 holes at Quail Hollow and was three strokes behind top-ranked leader Scottie Scheffler, his playing partner in Sunday's final group.
"It feels good. I got it together," Noren said. "(Time off) gave some good perspective, but I wish I would have played more golf leading up to this than I have."
Noren was sidelined last October with tailbone and tendon issues.
"It was just my tendon in my hamstring on the sit bone. It's a bad injury but you can still live a quite normal life because you have two other tendons that support it," Noren said.
"I could walk slowly and live a normal life. I could coach my kids. Spent a lot of time with the family. It has been quite nice. But I couldn't swing a club. I couldn't jump or run."
Noren knew he was in for a protracted recovery time.
"The bad part of it is that it takes a long time to heal and it was 90% torn. So I had that 10% left to make it heal back so I didn't have to have surgery," he said.
"If it was actually torn, I would not play right now. That was lucky but also bad at the same time."
The lucky part is that Noren was able to recover in time for the PGA. The bad part was it didn't leave a lot of time to prepare.
"As soon as I kind of could play, I thought I was in sort of the same form I was in before I got injured," Noren said. "But I'm still extremely -- not surprised, but I'm fortunate to be in this position this early."
Noren, a 10-time European Tour winner, had his best finish in 39 major starts with a share of sixth at the 2017 British Open.
After a three-month off season and four months fighting to get back, Noren hopes the mental benefits might help keep him playing longer than he might have without the break.
"Maybe. I got some good perspective, like spending that much time in the middle of a career, hopefully I'll play a lot longer," he said.
js/sev
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
25 minutes ago
- Washington Post
A frustrated McIlroy smashes a US Open tee marker but makes it to the weekend anyway
OAKMONT, Pa. — First Rory McIlroy flung an iron down the 12th fairway. Then he used driver to demolish a tee marker on 17. He might not win the sportsmanship award at the U.S. Open, but he will get to play on the weekend. McIlroy overcame two rounds of disappointment by draining a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Friday to finish at 6-over par and guarantee himself a tee time at Oakmont this weekend.
CNN
28 minutes ago
- CNN
Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau and other top players miss the cut at US Open after another difficult day
Some of the world's most recognizable names in golf, including defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, won't be around at the US Open this weekend after missing the cut at the brutal Oakmont Country Club. DeChambeau shot a 7-over 77 to put him at 10-over through the first two days of golf's third major of the year, a few shots more than the cutline that winnows the field before the third and fourth rounds. The two-time US Open champion was haunted by the thick rough around Oakmont's greens throughout the day, missed many of the course's narrow fairways and struggled to hit greens in regulation. It's the first time the defending champion has missed the cut at the US Open since 2020, when Gary Woodland failed to do so at Winged Foot Golf Club. But DeChambeau wasn't alone. Players like Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Justin Rose all fell short of securing themselves a tee time on Saturday. The leader through 36 holes is American Sam Burns, the No. 22-ranked player in the world who finished Thursday's round with three bogeys and one double bogey, looking like a changed man. Aside from one stray bogey as he began the back-nine, Burns hardly put a foot wrong to shoot a 5-under 65, only two shots off the course record. As the sun broke through the early haze on the relatively tree-less Oakmont course around midday, Burns stayed cool to par his last five holes. He finished the day 3-under for the tournament and was a shot behind leader JJ Spaun when he knocked in his final putt of the day. Burns finished ninth at this tournament last year at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina and said that experience taught him to play more freely on tough courses. 'I think for this golf course, you really just have to free it up. It's too hard to try to guide it around here. You're going to hit some in the rough, you're going to hit some in some bad spots, you might as well do it with authority,' he told reporters. But while Burns appeared to solve Oakmont for the day, some players who performed well on Thursday got eaten alive by the nasty course on Friday. Sungjae Im finished Thursday's opening round at 2-under, shooting 68. He described himself as lucky to hit fairways during a solid round. That luck ran out quickly Friday morning. Im bogeyed four holes on the front nine and his two birdies on the back nine were canceled out by a double bogey on 18. While he only hit one fewer fairway than on Thursday, he struggled to find the green quickly and ended the day with a 7-over 77, leaving him 5-over for the tournament. Americans Ryan McCormick and Jordan Spieth shot even par on Thursday and lost their touch on Friday. Spieth shot a 5-over 75 to put himself in danger of missing the cut and McCormick played himself out of a weekend appearance with a 7-over 77. Spieth in particular cut a frustrated figure, dropping his club on the 9th tee after sending his drive into the tall grass and turning to curse in exasperation after hitting an approach shot on 11 that left him with a long putt for birdie. There were also moments of pure cringe brought on by Oakmont's difficult greens. On the par-5 No. 12, Justin Thomas had 26-and-a-half-foot for birdie. He ended up four-putting to finish with a double bogey, missing putts from three feet and four feet before finally putting in a two-footer. But for a period, the eyes of the tournament were firmly fixed on No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who started promisingly with a birdie before finding enough trouble that speculation soared over whether the PGA Championship winner would even be playing the weekend at the year's third major. Bogeys on 15, 17 and 1 – his group teed off on the course's 10th hole on Friday – had Scheffler sitting at 6-over for the tournament, which was right on the projected cut line. A birdie on No. 2 seemed to right the ship but was quickly followed by a painful bogey on the difficult No. 3 with its famous church pew bunker. Scheffler slammed his club in frustration as his drive found the lengthy bunker that is striped with raised bits of turf, giving the visual effect of benches in the sand and an absolutely painful experience to play out of. 'When you get the ball out of position here, you've just got to try to get the ball back in play. That's really all there is to it,' he said. 'You can get lucky sometimes and get a lie and maybe be able to get something to the green. But that wasn't really happening for me today. I decided to just keep hitting it in the rough for some reason.' The big Texan did well to get his second shot into the fairway but left the approach shot long. His par putt missed by an inch but slid on Oakmont's quick greens to a difficult spot. Scheffler sank the bogey put and, from there, salvaged his day. Birdies on No. 4 and No. 7 seemed to put an end to speculation about the three-time major champion missing the cut but a bogey on No. 9 put him at 4-over for the tournament. 'Mentally this was as tough as I've battled for the whole day,' Scheffler said of his round, which was his sixth consecutive over-par round at the US Open dating back to last year. The No. 2 ranked player in the world, Rory McIlroy, flirted with the cutline for most of Friday before turning in a spectacular end to his round. McIlroy's day started ominously with double bogeys on the first and third holes of the day. The double on No. 3 was particularly hard to watch. McIlroy's drive found a fairway bunker 109 yards away from the pin and the Northern Irishman's shot out didn't quite clear the side of the bunker, dropping his ball in thick rough just a few yards away. His approach shot then rolled off the green and he had to chip his way back onto the green. His bogey putt from 12 feet out missed and he tapped in for a double, sending him to 4-over on the day and 8-over for the tournament. But from then on McIlroy got it together and went 2-under for the rest of the day, including a birdie on the 18th hole that ensured he was going into the weekend. His approach shot to the 18th green, with a pin placement in a little basin surrounded by three ridges and the thick rough just off the green, was magnificent. The ball landed behind the hole with just enough backspin to send it over one of those ridges and it rolled neatly to inside five feet. He sank the putt and is hoping to find some momentum going into the weekend. The course toyed with other players as well. Thriston Lawrence started off his round with three straight birdies – and then had three straight bogeys immediately afterward. Thomas Detry at one point played himself into a share of the lead, going 3-under for the tournament. Two holes later, he was at 1-over having suffered through back-to-back double bogeys. J.J. Spaun, the leader after the first round on Thursday when he played bogey-free golf, had six bogeys on Friday to shoot 2-over and trail Burns. With the way the course is playing, Scheffler – and everyone else who finds themselves with a black number next to their name – isn't necessarily out of it. However, 11 of the 12 past winners of the US Open were in the top five at the end of the second round and only three players in history have won the tournament after being outside the top 20 at the end of the second day. 'Mentally there's no just kind of gimme hole. There's no hole where you can get up there and just hit it and not really pay attention to what you're trying to do,' Burns said. 'I think it requires a lot of focus on every shot, and even when you're in the rough and you're trying to get it back in the fairway, it's just every shot is difficult. So, really, you're very focused and putting a lot into every shot mentally, and I think over time that's just pretty taxing.' The standout moment of the day came on the par-3 No. 6 when Victor Perez bounced an ace into the cup 192 yards away. The Frenchman's shot was a high, arcing ball that took a big hop on the green, bounced on more time and then rolled true into the heart of the hole. He jumped for joy in celebration, chest bumping his caddie as the roar from the crowd echoed around the wide-open Oakmont course. Incredibly, Perez said it was the third hole in one he's had this month. 'I guess I'm on a hole-in-one run at the moment. It might dry up for the next so years now, who know, so, yeah, really happy,' he said. There were other incredible shots – Detry's eagle on 14 from 141 yards that he dunked into the hole off the bounce, Tyrell Hatton's eagle on No. 12 that used every inch of the sloping green to roll into the cup, amateur Ben James' 297-yard drive on No. 17 that ended up within seven feet of the hole that he converted into an eagle.
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A frustrated McIlroy smashes a US Open tee marker but makes it to the weekend anyway
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — First Rory McIlroy flung an iron down the 12th fairway. Then he used driver to demolish a tee marker on 17. He might not win the sportsmanship award at the U.S. Open, but he will get to play on the weekend. McIlroy overcame two rounds of disappointment by draining a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Friday to finish at 6-over par and guarantee himself a tee time at Oakmont this weekend. Advertisement Other than the approach shot he hit on 18 to save the week, or the 20-foot birdie he made on 15 after teeing off into the first cut, very little of his first 36 holes was pretty. McIlroy's weekend was still in limbo when he walked to the tee on the drivable par-4 17th hole, then blocked the shot into a greenside bunker. He used his left arm to smash the club down and shatter the nearby tee marker. He made par there. A few hours earlier on the par-5 12th — another decent birdie chance — McIlroy catapulted his iron down the fairway after pulling his second shot into the left rough. He made par there, too. The birdie at the end capped a round of 2-over 72. It did not mask the issues McIlroy has been facing since his driver was deemed non-conforming before the PGA Championship, sending him on a mad search for a reliable replacement. Advertisement In two rounds this week, McIlroy has hit 15 of 28 fairways, a stat that doesn't include all drivers but is indicative of where his tee game has gone since he won the Masters two months ago to complete the career Grand Slam. At Oakmont, with its ankle-high rough, two missed fairways over McIlroy's first three holes led to a pair of double-bogeys and forced him to play catch-up for the rest of the round — not to climb into contention, but simply to make the weekend. Next comes the search for motivation — something McIlroy conceded has been hard to find since his landmark victory at Augusta National. On the line this week is his string of six straight top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open, including a pair of runner-ups the last two years. He will start the third round nine shots off the lead. ___ AP golf: Eddie Pells, The Associated Press
