He’d been out for 31 weeks. He coaches softball. And he may win the PGA

Alex Noren says folks were wrong, though he doesn’t sound overly concerned. 

No, he didn’t have two injuries. 

“It was just one,” he said. 

With Noren, though, there are many numbers. They’re somewhat of a theme, and we’ll try to add them all up. First and foremost for this correspondence, of course, is the 66 he shot Saturday during the PGA Championship’s third round at Quail Hollow Club, putting him three strokes back of leader Scottie Scheffler entering Sunday’s final round. Sunday, Noren and Scheffler are your final pairing, going off at 2:40 p.m. ET, and Noren will arrive coming off a day marked by precision, especially late.   

He birdied the par-4 14th. Then he holed-out from a greenside bunker for a birdie on the par-5 15th. Then he birdied the par-3 17th after he dropped his tee ball to 8 feet. Then he rolled in a 16-footer for birdie on the par-4 18th. And just like that, only Scheffler was better through 54 holes. 

There are more numbers, though. Like 31.

That’s the number of weeks Noren missed between starts, from the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last October, through the PGA Tour’s Truist Championship last week. The one injury was the main cause. He’d tried to play, but in January, he withdrew from the season-opening Sentry event due to a 90 percent tear to a tendon that attaches to his sit bone in his pelvis. 

The number there’s important. 

“So I had that 10 percent left to make it heal back so I didn’t have to have surgery,” Noren said. “If it was actually torn, I would not play right now. That was lucky but also bad at the same time.”

How bad? Bad and not so bad, if he’s being honest. 

“You can still live a quite normal life because you have two other tendons that support it,” Noren said. “But I couldn’t swing a club. I couldn’t jump or run. I could walk kind of slowly and live a normal life. 

“[But] I could coach my kids. Spent a lot of time with the family. It’s been quite nice.”

He coached his daughter’s softball team. He reflected. His career’s been solid. More numbers now. The 42-year-old from Sweden has been a pro for 20 years. He’s banked more than $16 million on the PGA Tour and another $19 million on the DP World Tour, along with winning 10 times there. But when he returned, maybe bad play now wouldn’t be, well, so bad. That was the thought he shared with CBS’ Amanda Balionis after his round on Saturday. He said in his press conference that he hopes to play a lot longer. 

This week, though, qualifies as a stunner, at least if the odds are your guide. The website golfodds.com listed Noren at 500-1 before the week; for comparison, Scheffler, his Sunday playing partner, was at 9-2. Noren said he’s playing to the form he had before his injury, but admits that he’s “fortunate” and wished he could’ve played more. 

But golf’s funny like that. 

“It feels good,” he said. “I got it together.”

And now he’s 18 holes from a major victory.

His first. 

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