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Alex Noren

Both tour events were played in high class resorts last weekend. The OHL US PGA took place at the high end Mayakoba resort in Mexico on a Greg Norman-designed course and the Nedbank in Sun City on the Gary Player course. Pat Perez won in Mexico, Alex Noren his fourth European title this year in South Afirca.

Alex Noren up to this year was one of those competent Swedish golfers who could not quite emulate Henrik Stensen in achieving an Open nor Ryder cup selection. Jonas Blixt, Magnus Carllson, Robert Karlsson, Rikard Karlberg and Peter Hansen are in the same bracket. Noren had back problems and was said to be too obsessed with his game but at 34 suddenly started to win tourneys. He carded a final round of 63 to depose as leader the Korean Wang. Andy Sullivan finished in the top 5 and Danny Willett finally seems to have discarded his Ryder Cup blues to finish -3 which gives him a chance in the Road to Dubai  which Stensen leads.

Jeremy Chapman has not been tipping that well off of late  but he did at least select Russell Knox who finished 3rd and brought some welcome winnings to the Pargiter household. How the 32 year old Scot, who is now 17th in the world, could not be chosen for the Ryder Cup is well beyond me.    Darren Clarke seems to have escaped the type of criticism that Tom Watson had to suffer for the crass decision to chose Lee Westwood who did not win a single point and missed a 3 for putt. If the argument was we had too many rookies then Tom Pieters, with 4 points, did not do so bad, did he? As the waves broke over the Mayakoba beaches in perfect sunshine whilst we had a bitter night in Carshalton Beeches the missus suggested a winter break inMexico. We will go next year and see the wall, I quipped.

Iain Carier is a fine golf writer analyst and  commentator and I always enjoy his column on the BBC website. In his last he made the point that 5 British golfers have emulated Andy Murray as being number one in the world: Sir Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy. They did not attract the same attention though Sir Nick was at the top for 93 weeks. Perhaps the most impressive was Luke  Donald who, in an era of power hitting, could not compete withe big bombers but had a short game that was a work of art. All  of these made the top ten in James Corrigan’s list of 10 best British golfers as well as the inclusion of some of the Edwardian Titans, notably Harry Vardon, but I was disappointed that Padraig Harington who did win two majors in one year a feat no Briton has emulated, did not make it.

Knox’s place restored  some health to the Pargie war chest. I missed a trick on Trump at 5-1 having predicted this is the year of political surprises.  Mrs Pargie will have to  wait before reaching for the sun block at Mayakoba.

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About John Pargiter

John Pargiter’s biggest claim to fame is his first-ever work experience job, as ‘legs’ (or runner) for Henry Longhurst. For many years he worked in insurance at Lloyds. After retiring he has returned to his favourite sport of golf and is a keen recreational sailor and grandparent. More Posts