Sweden’s Alex Noren won the European Tour Wales Open by two strokes at Celtic Manor here on Sunday. The 28-year-old from Stockholm, whose only previous victory was the 2009 European Masters, shot a final round of 70 for a nine-under-par aggregate total of 275. Anders Hansen and France’s Gregory Bourdy were the joint runners-up.
A bogey five on the 15th reduced Noren’s lead to two shots but he pared the last three holes to complete a great week for the Swede that started with him qualifying for the US Open — his first major championship in America. But he now has 36 holes of qualifying for the British Open at Sunningdale, south-west of London, awaiting him on Monday.
“It will be weird, but I will look forward to it,” said Noren after pocketing a winner’s cheque worth £300,000. “My driving has been the best it’s ever been. I never really believed I could do well on tough courses, but now we play them all the time.” “I have proved to myself I can hit a lot of greens and not just rely on my short game.” Now he will hope to follow the example of Graeme McDowell whose win at Celtic Manor last year preceded victory in the US Open.
The Ulsterman’s hopes of a successful Wales Open defence ended with a round of 81 on Saturday. Meanwhile Sunday saw Scotland’s Elliot Saltman complete a second hole-in-one at the same hole in a tournament. The 29-year-old, banned for three months in a ball-marking row, aced the 211-yard 17th just as he had done in Thursday’s opening round at the course where Europe won the Ryder Cup last year.
This was the first time this had happened in a European Tour event since Ireland’s Eamonn Darcy achieved a similar feat at the 1991 Mediterranean Open. “I am just overwhelmed with it – amazing,” said Saltman, after his fifth event since returning from suspension. “I hit a great seven-iron, it bounced once and in she pops. I am so excited.” “That 17th hole I have only ever seen in the Ryder Cup. Seventeen is my lucky number now – my last hole-in-one was on the 17th at Craigielaw (his home club in Scotland).”
