Lawrie 60th as Swede Noren ends four-year drought with home win

Alexander Noren. Picture © Getty Images

Peter Lawrie added a meagre €4,050 to his tally as he bids to regain his card as Sweden’s Alex Noren ended his four-year victory drought in the Nordea Masters.

As Lawrie closed with a  75 left him tied 131st in the Race to Dubai and some €35,000 outside the top 110 who will get their cards, Noren thrilled the huge home crowds by cruising to victory with a one over 71 that earned him €250,000

The 32-year old, who won this event by eight shots in 2011 and it was a fitting venue for his comeback victory on a day when Michael Hoey (75) and Gareth Maybin (73), shared 70th on five over to pick up €2,617 each.

Noren began the day with a two stroke lead and steadily plotted his way to his fourth European Tour title, starting birdie-bogey and then reeling off 15 consecutive pars before birdieing the last for a 12 under par total.

That was four shots ahead of Dubai Duty Free Irish Open winner Søren Kjeldsen (71), who completed a superb fortnight having won last week at Royal County Down, and six clear of Germany’s Max Kieffer (75), Swedes Jens Dantorp and Sebastian Soderberg (both 74) and Frenchman Alex Levy (71).

In testing conditions on the final day at PGA Sweden National in Malmö, the expected charge of Henrik Stenson never materialised, the World No 4 signing off with a 74 for a share of 13th place.

“I’m so pleased,” Noren said. "Now I can relax a bit because it was probably the toughest weekend in terms of wind I’ve ever felt. When you’re in the lead you can think a lot, and it was very tough. 

"I’ve had a few good tournaments but I haven’t played well on the last day. When I’ve had a chance – like at Wentworth, I had a small chance – I’ve had a slow round. I kept my poise and my caddie really helped calm me down.

“The win in 2011 Nordea Masters was very thrilling; this one is very pleasing. I wasn’t too confident coming into this week because I’ve had a tough time in the wind lately and here you really have to hit the right shots to get around. I got better as the week went on. You have to enjoy the good days in this game because you have plenty of bad ones.”

Kjeldsen was unsure how much he had in the tank after last week but he was determined to play well at home.

“My caddie Alistair helped a lot and on Tuesday lunchtime we said it’s time to get back to work,” Kjeldsen said. “I’ve done that and mentally I felt very good. 

"Today was especially pleasing because I learned a lesson last week about looking at leaderboards. I never looked at one today and it helped me a lot. 

"I felt very calm all day, even on the last few holes. It was by far the toughest day today. Alex is an incredible player and I’m very pleased for him winning in his home country.”

Max Kieffer came up short again with a 75 but said: “It has been a great week. 

"Obviously I’m a bit disappointed because when you’re in contention on the final day, you want to win it. But it’s another experience I can learn from. It was very tough again.

"I felt very good this morning and I hit some really nice shots on the first couple of holes. Then on the fourth I hit a spectator on the head and I struggled to handle that to be honest. 

"I three-putted the next hole and made double bogey which was one of the easiest holes today. It was tough to come back from that but I hung in there. And I heard the guy is okay so that’s the main thing.”

Nordea Masters, Final

276 A Noren (Swe) 70 68 67 71, 

280 S Kjeldsen (Den) 72 69 68 71, 

282 J Dantorp (Swe) 67 68 73 74, M Kieffer (Ger) 68 69 70 75, S Soderberg (Swe) 68 69 71 74, A Levy (Fra) 69 70 72 71, 

283 F Zanotti (Par) 70 74 73 66, T Murray (Eng) 74 68 70 71, B Ritthammer (Ger) 69 75 69 70, N Colsaerts (Bel) 73 71 68 71, L Slattery (Eng) 68 73 72 70, J Blixt (Swe) 74 68 71 70, 

284 C Shinkwin (Eng) 69 73 69 73, H Stenson (Swe) 70 72 68 74, D Fichardt (RSA) 70 70 73 71, P Hanson (Swe) 71 71 70 72, C Paisley (Eng) 67 73 71 73, K Broberg (Swe) 70 70 70 74, A Cañizares (Esp) 70 71 71 72, R Cabrera-Bello (Esp) 72 69 70 73, 

285 T Bjørn (Den) 71 72 74 68, B Dredge (Wal) 72 72 72 69, E Grillo (Arg) 72 70 71 72, 

286 D Gaunt (Eng) 74 69 72 71, J Morrison (Eng) 71 71 72 72, B Hebert (Fra) 68 72 73 73, S Gallacher (Sco) 71 71 71 73, T Pieters (Bel) 68 74 72 72, A Quiros (Esp) 75 66 72 73, G Havret (Fra) 72 71 69 74, M Nixon (Eng) 73 70 70 73, J Hahn (USA) 69 73 71 73, 

287 S Hend (Aus) 74 69 71 73, M Carlsson (Swe) 68 71 75 73, T Lewis (Eng) 68 70 75 74, R Gonzalez (Arg) 74 68 74 71, S Benson (Eng) 73 71 71 72, H Otto (RSA) 69 70 76 72, J Campillo (Esp) 74 70 70 73, L Bjerregaard (Den) 71 70 72 74, S Forsstrom (Swe) 70 72 70 75, M Kinhult (am) (Swe) 67 68 77 75, 

288 J Rask (Swe) 74 69 75 70, R Karlberg (Swe) 71 73 72 72, P Larrazábal (Esp) 71 72 72 73, S Hansen (Den) 71 72 72 73, E Pepperell (Eng) 70 68 75 75, A McArthur (Sco) 71 69 73 75, O Farr (Wal) 70 70 75 73, 

289 B Hellgren (Swe) 70 70 77 72, S Jeppesen (Swe) 72 68 70 79, O Fisher (Eng) 69 75 70 75, S Henry (Sco) 69 71 71 78, J Parry (Eng) 71 72 69 77, 

290 F Fritsch (Ger) 70 74 71 75, A Tadini (Ita) 69 72 73 76, A Otaegui (Esp) 68 72 72 78, N Fasth (Swe) 72 71 73 74, J Edfors (Swe) 71 73 72 74, 

291 Peter Lawrie (Irl) 69 71 76 75, S Wakefield (Eng) 69 75 71 76, P Oriol (Esp) 68 73 78 72, R Kakko (Fin) 72 70 72 77, D Woltman (USA) 70 69 75 77, O Bergqvist (am) (Swe) 74 69 75 73, 

292 T Fisher Jnr (RSA) 73 69 74 76, M Lundberg (Swe) 73 71 74 74, N Lemke (Swe) 74 68 76 74, J Roos (RSA) 71 70 74 77, 

293 A Velasco (Esp) 70 69 80 74, R Dinwiddie (Eng) 73 69 74 77, Gareth Maybin (Nir) 72 71 77 73, Michael Hoey (Nir) 74 68 76 75, T Van Der Walt (RSA) 72 69 78 74, 

294 J Barnes (Eng) 75 69 77 73, 

295 J Singh (Ind) 71 73 74 77, L Gillgren (Swe) 72 72 72 79, B Virto Astudillo (Esp) 71 72 77 75, 

297 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 73 69 77 78.