Tournament: Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo
Venue: The Belfry Hotel & Resort, Sutton Coldfield, England
Race to Dubai: Tournament 32 of 42
Back 9: Tournament 1 of 9
Prize Fund: US$3,500,000
Hashtag: #BetfredBritishMasters #DPWT
Alex Noren ended a seven-year wait for his 11th DP World Tour title as he fought off Nicolai Højgaard and a charging Kazuma Kobori to win the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo by one shot.
Noren, who also won this event in 2016, started the day one shot off the lead but took over at the top early in his final round before getting locked in a battle for the title with Dane Højgaard.
New Zealander Kobori stormed into contention late on with an eagle and four birdies in his final six holes to set the clubhouse target at 15 under par.
But Swede Noren produced a big finish of his own, picking up birdies at the 15th, 16th and 17th to take a two-shot lead to the 18th tee.
He suffered a late scare as an errant tee-shot at the last cost him a shot there but he finished the week on 16 under to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since the 2018 Open de France.
Kobori and Højgaard finished in a tie for second, with Japan’s Keita Nakajima and Andy Sullivan of England rounding out the top five at 13 under and 12 under respectively.
Højgaard’s twin brother Rasmus became the sixth and final player to automatically qualify for the European Ryder Cup Team after finishing in a tie for 13th on eight under.
A total of £168,000 was raised for tournament charity Guide Dogs across the week. Betfred donated £500 every time a player drove the green on the iconic 10th hole and for any eagle or better scored across the course. Ben Schmidt’s hole in one on the 14th hole during the first round resulted in a £50,000 donation, and there were further donations via the Long Putt Challenge in the PGA Village and the Drive the 10th Simulator by Nexo.
Player Quotes
Alex Noren: Extremely happy. It was unbelievable week for me. I haven’t played like this for a long time. Kind of struggled — I didn’t struggle the first two days but I scored really well from maybe not the best of play. Then the last two days, I don’t think I’ve played like this for a long time.
So super happy and super happy to do it here in Britain. I seem to love British people and British courses. So it’s wonderful here.
Everybody thinks I can’t hook the ball, but I hooked a little pitch in there stiff (on the 2nd) and I felt pretty proud of myself. It was a good start, and same on 3 with a birdie. It’s so much easier to start like that on a Sunday than to kind of fight and fight from behind.
I was a little bit nervous (on the last). More tense than nervous, maybe. But also, I couldn’t see if I was two ahead or one ahead. Then the wind — right now, there’s no wind. But it was kind of ten miles an hour into, and we’ve had always that downwind this whole week, and so the line kind of changes.
I don’t know, it should have been a bit more aggressive line than I tried to take. Because if I just missed it a little, I was in the bunker. Sort of a mental mistake. I’m happy to get the job done, anyway.
Rasmus Højgaard: I don’t know what to feel right now. I’ve been so stressed out on the course today. Yeah, I was telling Tom, my caddie out there, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do this. I managed to make a good four in the end there. So yeah, I’m over the moon right now.
I knew every bogey out there was very costly. So yeah, I was well aware of the situation. There’s a couple times out there where I really had to calm myself down and not let it spin out of control. That birdie on 15 calmed my nerves a little bit but obviously put pressure on myself on 16 again. I felt like every hole was just a tough battle, and yeah, so happy to be here now.
It’s probably the biggest goal we have together (to play with his brother in the Ryder Cup). I think if it would happen this year, it would be amazing. But I’m sure we’ll both fight to be able to do it another time if it didn’t happen.
Scores after Round Four
272 A NOREN (SWE) 68 72 65 67,
273 K KOBORI (NZL) 69 68 71 65, N H?JGAARD (DEN) 69 70 67 67,
275 K NAKAJIMA (JPN) 67 73 68 67,
276 A SULLIVAN (ENG) 72 67 69 68,
278 M PENGE (ENG) 71 72 63 72, M FITZPATRICK (ENG) 67 69 68 74,
279 D BROWN (ENG) 71 69 73 66, M SIEM (GER) 66 69 75 69, A FITZPATRICK (ENG) 69 69 72 69, H LI (CHN) 66 73 69 71, J GUERRIER (FRA) 72 68 68 71,
280 A AYORA (ESP) 70 72 69 69, D FICHARDT (RSA) 71 72 68 69, R NEERGAARD-PETERSEN (DEN) 71 70 69 70, A HIDALGO (ESP) 71 71 68 70, D BRYANT (USA) 74 70 66 70, R H?JGAARD (DEN) 69 71 69 71,
281 M SCHNEIDER (GER) 69 70 71 71, D WILLETT (ENG) 72 68 69 72, D BRADBURY (ENG) 71 71 67 72, C ADAM (AM) (SCO) 71 70 66 74, S FORSSTR?M (SWE) 71 71 65 74,
282 J SCRIVENER (AUS) 72 72 70 68, J MOSCATEL (ESP) 74 70 67 71, T VAILLANT (FRA) 73 69 66 74,
283 M ELVIRA (ESP) 68 73 73 69, B STONE (RSA) 68 69 76 70, N LEMKE (SWE) 72 70 70 71, M LINDBERG (SWE) 74 67 70 72, K APHIBARNRAT (THA) 71 68 70 74, R LANGASQUE (FRA) 70 71 68 74,
284 C SORDET (FRA) 71 72 73 68, M JORDAN (ENG) 70 74 72 68, E SMYLIE (AUS) 71 67 77 69, A RAI (ENG) 73 71 70 70, T HUNT (WAL) 75 69 69 71, R FISHER (ENG) 73 70 69 72, J SMITH (ENG) 75 68 66 75, M WALLACE (ENG) 68 69 70 77,
285 G MIGLIOZZI (ITA) 70 74 72 69, J WINTHER (DEN) 73 70 72 70,
286 W DING (CHN) 71 71 74 70, J PARRY (ENG) 73 71 70 72, R CABRERA BELLO (ESP) 74 69 70 73,
287 C TARREN (ENG) 71 71 73 72, K REITAN (NOR) 73 69 70 75, J GUMBERG (USA) 71 69 71 76, U COUSSAUD (FRA) 72 71 66 78,
288 J CAMPILLO (ESP) 72 72 73 71, B SNEDEKER (USA) 72 70 74 72, R GOUVEIA (POR) 74 69 73 72, M KIEFFER (GER) 71 71 73 73,
289 V AHLAWAT (IND) 73 71 71 74, J SCHAPER (RSA) 73 69 72 75, M SCHWAB (AUT) 66 73 74 76,
290 J VEERMAN (USA) 71 69 76 74, A DEL REY (ESP) 71 71 73 75,
291 T AIKEN (RSA) 66 78 77 70, R MANSELL (ENG) 71 73 71 76,
292 F LACROIX (FRA) 72 72 75 73, J GIRRBACH (SUI) 73 71 73 75, E FERGUSON (SCO) 68 73 74 77,
293 L CANTER (ENG) 72 72 74 75, A PAVAN (ITA) 74 70 74 75, J DEAN (ENG) 71 72 73 77, M DAFFUE (RSA) 73 70 72 78,
294 P ERENO (ESP) 73 68 73 80,
296 M BALDWIN (ENG) 74 70 78 74, B WIESBERGER (AUT) 71 73 73 79,
