Noren’s win at Sun City last year is still sinking in

JOHANNESBURG: Defending champion Alex Noren still can’t quite believe he won the Nedbank Golf Challenge a year ago at Sun City.

The Swede is back this week to try and defend his title, but he can expect some stiff competition.

Noren, who enjoyed a quite sensational 2016 season, returned to Sun City yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s first round and couldn’t help but talk about what went down last year. After opening with rounds of 69 and 67 to get into contention at the halfway point, he registered a 75 third round score to leave himself with plenty to do on the Sunday to win.

And he did just that, and in some style too. He fired a final round 9-under-par 63 to finish on 14 under to beat South Korea’s Jeunghun Wang, who had a nightmare day with a 75, by three shots.

“It’s such a good feeling being here and thinking about the last time here,” said Noren. “All those memories come back ... it seems not so long ago.

“I couldn’t actually believe that I won because I was a lot of shots back before that last round. Everything happened so quickly and before I knew it I was off to the next tournament. Coming back here now it’s almost like it’s sinking in a bit more.”

Asked what was going through his mind when he teed it up on the first tee six shots back last year, Noren said: “I lost my lead on the third day, didn’t play well ... I really just wanted to finish well, get a decent round behind me.

“I wasn’t thinking about winning at all. I wanted to get something going for Dubai and then all of a sudden, with the eagle on (the par-5) 10th, the big lob shot on 11th ... I was like, I can do this.”

Having conquered the course a year ago the Swede will certainly be among the favourites this week. He knows he will have to be on top of his game in all four rounds to get the job done again, with his competitors unlikely to dish out any favours like they did 12 months ago.

“The wind was quite strong at times last year and the greens are quite small, with many of the pins out on the edges ... so you can’t be too aggressive, otherwise the course will bite you,” Noren said.

“Overall, you have to play pretty good golf to shoot a low number, but you need to know your way around the course as well.”