Nordic Fire

So it's Monday and we got through another weekend unscathed and it's now time to put on our thinking hats. It's time to exercise our brains and get warmed up for the week. So with this said, let's play a little game of "Who Am I?".

"I'm Swedish and I am 34 years old. Even though I went to school at Oklahoma State University - Stillwater I play golf on the PGA European Tour. I have a driving average of 289.12 yards and my astrological sign is Sagittarius. Who am I?"

Photo Credit: europeantour.com

If you guessed Alex Noren then you are indeed correct. The Oklahoma State University alum is as hot as any golfer to come out of Sweden since Annika Sorenstam. I  just find it so amazing that  a Scandinavian country has a population of 9.5 million can produce so many world class golfers. Although, the number of golfers coming out from Sweden hasn't quite matched the number of hockey players. But the list is quite impressive when you look at the names. I already mentioned Annika, but then there is also names like Jonas Blixt, Jesper Parnevik, Anna Nordqvist, Fredrik Jacobson, Carl Petterson, Carin Koch, and some guy named Henrik Stenson. Now that I think about it Sweden has developed more Tour or World Class players than my beloved Canada.

Sun City, South Africa hosted the Nedbank Challenge hosted by Gary Player and with his win this week Noren claimed his fourth victory of the season this year. That win is also record-setting as no other Swede has won 4x on The European Tour in the same year ever. Noren joins a pretty exclusive club of golfers that won 4x in a single PGA European Schedule. Some other names on the list includes Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Colin Montgomerie and Seve Ballesteros. All of whom are either World Golf Hall of Fame bound or are already inductees. What is it that makes Noren's game so good to see him work his way into 9th place on the Official World Golf Rankings?

If one was to look at his driving distance stats one would be inclined to think that his 289 yard average is middle of the pack. Remember two things when looking at that number. The first is that they use one upwind hole and one downwind hole to ascertain driving distance. Secondly, it may not always be a driver. His fairways hit is 57.59% his highest since 2012. His G.I.R is 72.39% and when you combine that with his average Putts Per GIR at 1.75 you have to know that his stroke average of 70.03 is made up on and around the greens. By the way, his stroke average is the best that it's been since 2011. Noren doesn't overpower golf courses necessarily but it goes to show that if you can hit GIR's, scramble well when a GIR is missed and limit the damage on the greens you can score well.

Photo Credit: sports.yahoo.com

I think that the ceiling in really high for a guy like Noren to win more on the European Tour and even though he is not a household name in North America yet he will be. His eight victories since turning professional in 2009 is just a beginning. With wins this year in South Africa, the British Masters, the Omega European Masters, and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open why would he not make more history by winning the Race to Dubai?

Until The Next Tee!