Europe’s Ryder Cup stars being upstaged by vice-captain Noren at BMW PGA Championship
VIRGINIA WATER England AP The European stars in line to compete in the upcoming Ryder Cup are being upstaged at the high-profile BMW PGA Championship by a participant who will be one of the association s vice captains Alex Noren a Swede who will be among Luke Donald s five assistants at Bethpage Black rolled in a -foot putt at No to complete a birdie-birdie-eagle finish and join Adrien Saddier in a tie for the third-round lead at the European tour s flagship event Saddier a Frenchman ranked No birdied three of his last four holes for a -under and Noren the champion shot At -under they were two strokes clear of Tyrrell Hatton who shot and was the best-placed of the Ryder Cup players taking part at Wentworth this week to begin the buildup to the Sept - matches A stroke further back was another Viktor Hovland after his left him in fourth place Of the other Ryder Cup players Ludvig berg and Matt Fitzpatrick were tied for sixth on under Rory McIlroy was down in a tie for rd on under after shooting and has been unable to back up the form he proved in winning the Irish Open last week Tommy Fleetwood the modern FedEx Cup winner shot and was under for the tournament Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose who were first and tied for second respectively after holes dropped out of contention after shooting for the joint-worst rounds of Saturday In-form Noren Noren knows how to win at Wentworth having shot a final-round to take the title eight years ago and is finishing the season strongly Two weeks ago he won the British Masters for his th European tour success and first in seven years and he was tied for third at the Wyndham Championship in early August His impressive latest form wasn t enough to earn a captain s pick for the Ryder Cup but he might be about to beat a great number of of the stars with whom he ll share the European company room at Bethpage It s going to be so much fun Noren commented looking ahead to the final round I love this As for Saddier he led after three rounds of the Irish Open only to close with a and finish tied for fifth He is back with a shot at a second title of after the Italian Open in June and the biggest win of his career I think it will be another day at the office Saddier declared Just focus on myself and my competition Try to hit a lot of fairways and greens and we ll see if the putts drop on the morrow AP golf https apnews com hub golf Source
