Alex Noren stuns Ryder Cup stars to seal ‘emotional’ BMW PGA Championship win

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Alex Noren recorded an “emotional” win at the BMW PGA Championship as he outgunned the various Ryder Cup stars in contention and defeat Adrien Saddier in a play-off amid challenging weather conditions at Wentworth.

Noren and Saddier held a narrow lead on the rest of the field overnight and duly pulled away as Sunday progressed, to both end on 19 under par after 72 holes.

The likes of Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick – all of whom will be on Team Europe for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in a fortnight’s time – were left trailing, while Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm both went low on Sunday but were too far back to remotely challenge the Swedish-French duo at the top.

In the end, Noren – a vice-captain for the Ryder Cup in New York – who produced a fine shot out of the rough to set up short birdie putt to take the play-off at the first extra hole and claim his 12th win on the DP World Tour.

Following on from his victory at last month’s British Masters, only McIlroy, who has 20 titles, has won more times on the DP World Tour since 2009 than Noren.

Saddier registered another agonising miss after blowing 36-hole and 54-hole leads at the European Masters and the Irish Open, respectively, over the last few weeks.

Alex Noren held his nerve to down Adrien Saddier in a play-off (Adam Davy/PA Wire)

And the Swede could then collect the BMW PGA Championship trophy for the second time in his career (Getty Images)

And the Swede could then collect the BMW PGA Championship trophy for the second time in his career (Getty Images)

England’s Aaron Rai had an exceptional bogey-free round of 66, which was matched by former Masters champion Patrick Reed as the pair tied for third at 16 under.

“I love it,” said Noren, after winning this event for the second time in his career. “This tournament is unbelievable. I told all the guys in the States to come over here. I think it’s one of the best tournaments in the whole world. It just gets better every year. I’m so grateful we have these kind of tournaments.

“Amazing. It was such a tough, emotional back nine. He played very well, Adrien, and I thought the leaderboard was kind of stacked the whole way down to 13, 14. It just kept going.

“I knew the conditions were going to be tough the last seven holes. It’s a weird one because you can’t just wait for the rain to come. Hard to focus on the game, as well, because you know it’s tough and you don’t know how bad it’s going to be.”

Additional reporting from PA

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