CHARLOTTE — In a fraction of second, the time it takes to swing a golf club, Alex Noren’s prospects for the 2025 season changed dramatically. The 42-year-old Swede was on the driving range early in the week of the season-opening Sentry in Maui, pleased to be included in a $20 million signature event after reaching the penultimate event in the FedEx Cup Playoffs last year. The former Tournament of Champions is no longer only for winners, and Noren doesn’t have a victory in 184 starts on the PGA Tour.
What the stout, muscular champion of 11 events on the DP World Tour has possessed is a gritty drive—one that has him alone in second at eight under, three shots behind Scottie Scheffler heading into the final round of the PGA Championship. And his toughness was put to the test in that moment in Hawaii, when on the range Noren felt like he’d been shot in his backside.
“It was horrible,” he recalled earlier this week at Quail Hollow. “Don’t ever do that.”
Noren withdrew from the Sentry, and the reason for that sharp pop would be revealed soon by an MRI, which determined he suffered a 90-percent tear of a tendon that attaches to the sit bone in the lower pelvis. “I had a little bit [of tendon] left, and I was lucky,” Noren said. “If it’s a full tear, you have a surgery and then it’s a year or something out.”
The optimistic prognosis for healing was four months. That put the West Coast Swing and Masters out of reach but left the Texas portion of the schedule and the PGA Championship in play. Noren was able to begin putting and chipping a couple of months ago, but didn’t start hitting full shots again until late April. He hoped to return in the Byron Nelson, but discovered playing 18 holes was still too demanding. His return came last week in the Truist Championship, where he made the cut and shot one under to tie for 51st.
Then it was on to this week at Quail Hollow—a tough walk on a demanding golf course, which makes his performance all the more impressive. Noren opened with a 68, slid a bit in the second round with a 71, and on Saturday was just playing OK until catching fire with birdies on four of the last five holes. And like Scheffler, Noren pulled off what few others have on the Green Mile with a couple of birdies over the three holes, stuffing his tee shot over the water at the par-3 17th to eight feet for birdie, and then making only one of 12 birdies at the par-4 18th when he rifled an 8-iron to 16 feet.
“I didn’t have my best iron game and wedge game maybe leading up to those,” Noren said. “I saved myself a lot with a good bunker game. But then on 17 and on 18, I hit two of the best shots this week, and that’s what you need to get close to those holes.”
Noren can’t say if the time he had to mentally and physically recharge has been of benefit this week, but he does know how much personal satisfaction he took from it.
There wasn’t much rehab to do, just rest, and Noren occupied himself with a couple of trips to Sweden and the joy of a surprising new hobby: coaching girls’ softball with his 9-year-old daughter’s team at home in Florida. It ended up being the highlight of his time away from his own competition.
“It was awesome, the best thing I’ve ever done,” Noren said.
“It’s amazing, you know?” he later added. “You’re so stuck in your own golf world all of the time. It’s good to step out of it.”
He said he’s loved baseball for a while, has studied the top players and even took some batting lessons. His swing? “Not good.”
That hardly mattered compared to the happiness he felt working with kids of all skill levels and interests. Noren grinned when recalling girls who were super competitive and others who had never had a glove on before the first practice. Some showed a lot of pop in their bat, and others whiffed time and time again.
“For some, they couldn’t hit,” Noren said, his eyes brightening. “And then by the end of the season they could hit, or they hit a home run. And it’s amazing, you know?”
Is Noren’s biggest blast still in the offing this week? We know there are some young girls in Florida who are hoping so.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
