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WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 24, 2018

Alex Noren

Austin, Texas

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Your assessment of this afternoon's match to start us off, please.

ALEX NOREN: I thought it was -- I came off a good start, 2-under through six and was 2-up, 3-up, and then he started playing better. He hit it closer than me most of the time in the middle of the round.

I misjudged kind of a club on 8, made another bogey. Bogeyed 7, 8, and it felt like he had the grip on the match. He missed a few short birdie putts and three-putted 12, which was a big probably game changer, I think, because I was struggling off the tee there. I had to play up to a 9-iron third shot and hit it in the middle of the green, two-putted, and came away with a tie on that hole. I felt like I was fortunate there for me, yeah.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Your match tomorrow is with Kevin Kisner.

ALEX NOREN: We played on rival teams, and we played a lot of tournaments together. I don't know how many times I played with him. But I've only played with him once since then. But he has a very steady game, so I'm expecting that I have to do something very good. And then obviously today he won 8-6. I don't know what the score -- the actual scores, but 8-6 is pretty good.

Q. How would you rate this particular stretch compared to some of the other hot stretches you've had in your career? Is it the best that you've had, the four days of play here?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, definitely. I felt a lot better than last week at the Arnold Palmer. Better iron game, hit more greens, especially on par-3s and a little bit longer holes out here. Been driving it okay. That kind of golf course, you've got to have control of the flight. A lot of slopey fairways, slopey greens. Probably the best thing has been my putting.

Like today, I didn't maybe hit it as good as when I played Thomas Pierce, but my putting, getting up and down a few times when he had chances, and then kind of making the birdies when I got a little bit closer. That's how you get a score from maybe not the best golf.

Q. From Torrey and Honda Classic now to here, how do you balance the maybe frustration of not winning yet but the idea that you keep giving yourself chances?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, I view it as really fortunate to have started this year a lot better than I started any other year, having two good finishes, like you said. It was really close at Torrey. Honda was not so close. I'm more happy with the game, having the chance to be up there than maybe winning once and having a bunch of very bad finishes. I'm happy with -- I don't know how many times I've played now, but six or seven tournaments this year and the average scores and the average -- all the stats are so much better than I thought I was going to do this year.

Q. I think you won nine of ten matches here. Are you a good match player?
ALEX NOREN: I don't know, I've always liked match play because I think it's very -- the outcome is quite direct. Four days, sometimes it can -- you can go through holes that maybe mentally you're a little bit out of it and then you get into it when it's 72 holes.

In match play, you've just got to be really focused all the time and anything can happen. And then you have to play good each round. You can't just give up a round and then think you've got three more. Maybe that's what I need to do in stroke play, as well, not give a round away. I've always liked it. You can be a little bit more aggressive.

Q. A lot of players come from Europe to America and take a lot of time to adjust, some people don't adjust at all. It's quite a big change. What do you think has been the one key or one secret to hit the ground running as you have done over here? Is it mental or technical or what?
ALEX NOREN: I think it's both. I've always been really realistic where my game is at. And a lot of people have said before, my friends, they think I'm ready to play good at U.S. Open style golf courses. But realistically my tee game hasn't been good enough, I don't think. And the long irons haven't been good enough. I've always had -- my strength has always been putting and chipping.

And this year the stats are so much better in the long game. And therefore, I think I can compete better. And then mentally the confidence goes up with that. If you don't play well, it's hard to think you're going to do well. I think it's very linked together.

Q. Well, are you at a space where you think you can compete in any field of golf, there's no field that would phase you at all?
ALEX NOREN: Well, playing more -- when you play the same kind of field here as in a major, obviously it's the same guys, so it's just the name of the tournament that's different. But if you don't get to play with the best players, it's hard to get used to the situation, I think. So now mentally I'm more prepared, but now I just have to get the game better.

Q. In what ways did you adapt to your surroundings in the metropolis of Stillwater, Oklahoma? Cowboy boots? Country bars? Eskimo Joe's?
ALEX NOREN: I loved Stillwater. I thought it was tough. It wasn't the most fun place in the beginning. But then with 25,000 students, it can't be that bad. They have a great golf course. And we had a lot of fun.

Q. How many years there?
ALEX NOREN: I had four. I was there four.

Q. Did you graduate?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, I actually did.

Q. That's a rarity in golf these days.
ALEX NOREN: Well, I wasn't good enough to go early like some of the other guys. And then I didn't have the best GPA, but graduated.

Q. What was your major?
ALEX NOREN: Marketing. That's a shock, huh? I haven't used it, but I liked it.

Q. Was there less pressure on you coming into here than maybe some of the other bigger names, better credentials?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, I mean -- yeah, obviously the better you are in the World Ranking, the more outside pressure you have. But the pressure on us, we're used to kind of getting into the groove of playing tournaments and knowing what you have to do to play well every single day. I don't think -- Rory, for example, most of his pressure is on himself. I don't think we think too much about the outside pressure, especially when you play more and more of these bigger events, I think.

Q. Over the years I've seen you practicing a lot, and even you have put some pictures of scars of your hands?
ALEX NOREN: That wasn't me, but somebody else.

Q. Did you change the way you practice?
ALEX NOREN: Well, I was just trying to practice more with my coach and maybe practice better. I don't have as much time now. Maybe off the course I did earlier. Yeah, I still practice like everybody else out here. But maybe try to practice a little bit better and try to play a few -- like have a little bit more regular schedule so I don't take five weeks off. Like last year I took six weeks off and try to improve by just practicing. And this year I'm trying to play a bit more regularly.

Q. I think I had a conversation with you last year, about when you were coming to the United States to better prepare yourself for the majors. Do you feel like right now you're better prepared for the Masters in two weeks than you ever have been before?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, definitely. I think me and my caddie, we constantly kind of improve on the strategy of playing all these holes. And I think the huge difference is the par-5s over here. There are tougher greens, firmer greens. Especially the par-5s, just because you can reach it, you can't just hit it anywhere around the green. Not that you can do that in Europe, but here I think the greens being so firm, it's tough to short side yourself. And the same with other holes. Yeah, I feel more prepared definitely now.

Q. A lot of big hitters have won here. The first year here in Austin, you've got two big hitters in the other semifinal. I think you're averaging over 300 yards off the tee. And you're facing the guy that ranks 177th in driving distance. How much is that an advantage here? He's getting a lot of roll. Is it a real big advantage, length here?
ALEX NOREN: Length? No, I don't think it's as much advantage as a lot of courses. Definitely it's great to hit it a bit longer, but you've got holes like 3, 5, if you hit it good flight enough and anybody on this Tour can hit it far enough on this course, definitely. Then you've got a few holes, obviously. But the thing here, if you've got a bit more speed on all the shots, you can stop the balls on the greens on the par-5s.

Like today, 6 is playing downwind. You need to have a lot of spin and a lot of speed to hit a high iron shot in there to get it to stop. I think more -- it's more the speed of all the shots here than maybe just the driving.

Q. Did you feel like the 12th hole may have been maybe a momentous turning point, he was on the green in 2 and three-putted?
ALEX NOREN: Yeah, I was lucky. He just missed two putts on 9 and 10, short birdie putts, shortish.

And then he kind of overclubbed on 11 and gave me a 1-under par there. He hit a good shot off the tee, but probably one club too much. And I got away with I think 2-up after 11.

And then I hit it in the bunker on 12 and had to lay up. That 12th hole is tricky, even if you're on the green. He had a lot of sling on the putt. I felt really like -- very fortunate to tie that hole. Because like somebody else was saying, like 13 is such a -- it can go either way on that hole. You can quite easily make birdie if you hit a good shot. It's also water over there.

Q. I remember Rahm saying, when he went to Arizona State, first getting there it was a shock for it to be a hundred degrees when he woke up in the morning. I'm trying to picture you going to Stillwater. You call home, your parents say, how is it out there? And you look out the window and you can probably see all the way to Nebraska. What do you tell them?
ALEX NOREN: I went from a very small town where I went to high school in Sweden and another kind of small town in Stillwater. But I was -- I visited a lot of schools and I few other schools and I thought the golf course in Stillwater was amazing. And I just -- they know I love golf. And if the golf course is good enough, I like where I'm at.

And then the city, at first, it wasn't like Stockholm where I'm from, but it grew on me. But it was quite cold winters, and then like super hot summers. But I wasn't there too much in the summer. But the spring and fall was nice. And the golf course was probably the toughest golf course in the world and toughest coach in the world. I just had to kind of survive every day.

Q. (Inaudible.)
ALEX NOREN: It's really close. There's an English guy, Chris Clark, and Hunter was on the team, another Swedish guy. Casey Wittenberg was on the team. Yeah, so it's a lot of guys. We all were quite close to each other. It was a good team. It was a nice team.

Q. Do you know how many tournaments you won in college?
ALEX NOREN: Zero (laughter). I was runner-up like, I don't know, two or three times.

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