Alex Noren doesn’t bristle with indignation at the idea – mostly coming from America – he’s the World top 20 player you don’t know about.
Five wins in a year since he broke through at last year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart don’t exactly confirm that he’s been flying under the radar. Only all of them have been in Europe, so even dipping inside the world’s top 10 somehow doesn’t impress some.
“I haven’t played as well as I wanted in majors,” he admitted. “My biggest finishes in the US have been the WGC Matchplay and the Players’, so I guess it’s easier to fly under the radar a little.
“But I haven’t always been the most confident on the golf course and really I’m still not. I play with players I’m more impressed with. I still feel I need to improve things in my game.
“You look at players like Dustin Johnson and see the distance he hits it off the tee, and that plays such a big part in today’s golf.
“That’s somewhere I have to improve on. I’ve always relied on my putting, but I don’t want that to always be the case.”
Confidence really shouldn’t be an issue with more wins than any player in the world over the last 12 months, and it was at this event – albeit the northernmost venue at Castle Stuart – which kick-started that run.
“That did help my confidence, it was my biggest win at the time,” he said. “It eases you down the stretch in other events when you know you have the win in you.
“A won always helps the next one, you get double confidence after that. I didn’t play well in every tournament after the Scottish last year but I was kinder to myself.
“You take bad shots a little easier. You get better at knowing that I don’t have to every shot perfectly.”
Dundonald this week is a lot different to Castle Stuart, but similar to Birkdale, feels Noren.
“Castle Stuart is maybe a bit more extreme, playing up and down the cliff, this is more a Birkdale style, flatter, with hills banked up.
“Every hole is good and I think it will play really well with a little more wind. The greens are pretty tricky and you can put the pins in some positions here.”
