Incredibly, Alex Noren is the closest challenger to Scottie Scheffler with the final round of the PGA Championship nearly upon us.
What makes Noren’s first three rounds at the PGA Championship so unbelievable is the fact that he has played only one tournament over the past 31 weeks.
And now he is the man who will be trying to put the pressure on Scheffler in the final group on Sunday afternoon.
Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are still in contention, but they are six and five shots behind the world number one respectively.
Scheffler admitted he had to iron out some kinks in his swing after day two of the PGA Championship, and he clearly did exactly that before the start of round three.
Noren is someone who knows all about working hard to get results, and now he is on the cusp of making history.
It’s quite remarkable that he is even in contention when you think about what has gone on recently.
Alex Noren set to battle with Scottie Scheffler on day four of the PGA Championship
It’s worth noting that Noren is an experienced winner.
Sure, he hasn’t won on the PGA Tour yet, but he does have 10 DP World Tour victories to his name.
Noren once shot a 62 in the final round of the DP World Tour’s flagship event at Wentworth to win the tournament.
He also beat Bryson DeChambeau in the Ryder Cup singles way back in 2018. So he’s certainly no chump.
If Scheffler is not 100% on his game on day four of the PGA Championship, Noren is more than good enough to step in and win.
And something that he told Dan Rapaport about his recent injury problems makes the possibility of him winning a major incredibly hard to believe.
Rapaport was speaking on his official YouTube channel and opened up on something the man from Sweden told him last week at the Truist Championship.
He said, “I spoke to Alex Noren. He hadn’t played a single event since October and I asked him. He said it was mostly a hamstring injury, which is not really what you hear from golfers, right? I mean, you hear about wrists, you hear about back injuries, you know, maybe a hip, but a hamstring injury?
“And he said it was really strange because it was it was like he was explaining to me all these different parts of the hamstring, and there’s multiple muscles, and it was this one muscle that was like in there, and so he could walk fine, and he had a decent amount of strength in his legs.
“He actually showed up to Hawaii and tried to play in the century. I think he withdrew from the century, like, right before, um, but, yeah, and then he So they basically said, you’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna be fine. You know, you can start to play.
“He tried playing. It didn’t work out. He did solid last week, and this is a guy who was actually playing really, really well toward the end of last year.“
Scheffler the man to beat, but could Noren spring a huge surprise?
The simple answer to that question is no!
Scheffler was in imperious form during the final five holes at Quail Hollow on day three.
And he just looks like a man who knows exactly what he needs to do to reign victorious at the PGA on Sunday evening.
Even if Noren shoots the lights out, Scheffler is playing right next to him, and the Dallas native will undoubtedly just raise his game to match the Swede.
If Noren doesn’t manage to beat Scheffler to the PGA Championship trophy, it would be great to see him finish inside the top three, after all the problems he has been through off the course.
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