Media Center Interviews
April 6, 2024
Third Round Interview with Alex Noren
Q. So can you go ahead and talk about the stretch from 14 to 1? You went in 6 under. How did that feel?
ALEX NOREN: Well, amazing because I was struggling first two days and I was very lucky to even tee it up this morning. Yeah, started playing good. I played good from 10 on, like from the -- my first 10 holes were great. Good chance on 12 as well. Then obviously started playing really good on 14, 16, 17, 18. On 18 I had some mud on the ball right where I was going to hit it but not too much and I experienced the same thing like a month ago. I was like, it's just going to knuckle and knuckled all the way until almost in the hole. Then 1, similar lie to Thursday and kind of learned something from that, stuck it close there. Then just a little bit more maybe defensive, it got pretty windy, some tough holes on the front nine, but I'm still happy.
Q. And as you said, birdie on 16, birdie on 18 and eagle on 18. What do you think was working well for you today?
ALEX NOREN: Well, the driver was better. We had some strategic stuff, like mental stuff I just -- you know, more like just let it happen, not think too much because here it's pretty tricky. The greens, when it's this windy, it's hard to -- it's easy to overthink everything instead of just kind of go a little bit faster about it and just trust that my instincts are working. That helped a lot.
Q. And looking ahead to tomorrow, what keys are going to be a big factor going into tomorrow?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, it's going to be opposite wind, I think less windy. I think just like I said, I'm going to do the same work today on my putting, just kind of get a little faster stroke, a little bit more speed into the putts because it's too defensive. Like on the front nine today, just didn't really reach the hole instead of just kind of let it happen. That's a big factor. And then to maybe get a little bit more out of my driver, tee it up, tee it forward, kind of launch it more because around here when it's so windy, you want to keep it down sometimes and then you don't get as much as you can out of it. It's not a super narrow course, but you need the distance on some of the holes.