Europe’s Ryder Cup stars being upstaged by Vice Captain Alex Noren, who leads BMW PGA Championship
The European stars in line to compete in the upcoming Rider Cup are being upstaged at the high profile BMW PGA Championship by a player who will be one of the team’s vice captains Alex Noran a Swede who will be among Luke Donald’s five assistants at Bethpage Black rolled in a 17 foot putt at No. 18 to complete a birdie birdie eagle finish and join Adrian Sadier in a tie for the third round lead at the DP World Tour’s flagship event Satir a Frenchman ranked No. 1 20 birdied three of his last four holes for a 7 under 65 And Noren the 2017 champion shot 66 at 15 under 2:01 They were two strokes clear of Tyrrell Hatton who shot 64 and was the best placed of the 11 Rider Cup players taking part at Wentworth this week to begin the build up to the Septaire 2628 matches A stroke further back was another Victor Hovlon after his 71 left him in fourth place Of the other Rider Cup players Ludwig Oberry 73 and Matt Dow Fitzpatrick 69 were tied for sixth on ten under Rory Mcelroy was down in a tie for 53rd on five under after shooting 70 and has been unable to back up the form he showed in winning the Amgen Irish Open last week Tommy Fleetwood the recent FedEx Cup winner shot 71 and was 3 under for the tournament Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose who were first and tied for Second respectively after 36 holes dropped out of contention after shooting 76 for the joint worst rounds of Saturday Noran knows how to win it Wentworth having shot a final round 62 to take the title eight years ago and is finishing the season strongly Two weeks ago he won the Bedford British Masters for his 11th DP World Tour victory and first in seven years And he was tied for third at the Wyndham Championship in early August His impressive recent form wasn’t enough to earn a captain’s pick for the Rider Cup but he might be about to beat many of the stars with whom he’ll share the European team room at Bethpage It’s going to be so much fun Noran said looking ahead to the final round I love this As for Satir he LED after three rounds of the Amgen Irish Open only to close with a 74 and finish tied for fifth He is back with a shot at a second title of 2025 after the Italian Open in June and the biggest win of his career I think it will be another day at the office Sadier said Just focus on myself and my game try to hit a lot of fairways and greens and we’ll see if the putts drop tomorrow
