Alex Noren has an outside chance of topping the Race to Dubai standings in the UAE this weekend but the Swede is only concentrating on playing well at the European Tour’s season-ending event.
Noren, 34, climbed into the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time after rallying for a six-stroke victory after a final-round 63 handed him the Nedbank Golf Challenge title at the Gary Player Country Club on Sunday.
In order to finish top of the money list, Noren must finish in the top two at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, which starts on Thursday, and then hope the other three contenders are not among the front runners.
More golf:
• Race to Dubai: List of the final 60 golfers competing at DP World Tour Championship
• Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship: Dustin Johnson to debut; McIlroy, Fowler, Willett also in
• Race to Dubai: Alex Noren clinches Nedbank title to move to third in the standings
Noren is third on the money list but played down the possibility of another sensational come-from-behind success after registering his fourth victory of the season.
“This is out of my mind, I’ll just try to play some good golf next week and we will see what happens,” he said before leaving Sun City.
Compatriot Henrik Stenson is favourite to wrap up the title of Europe’s top golfer with a 299,675-point lead over nearest rival, Masters champion Danny Willett.
Noren is 633,436 adrift of his compatriot but if he finishes first or second and Stenson is outside the top eight and Willet outside top two, then he can leapfrog them both in the standings.
Rory McIlroy, who skipped the last two European Tour events, will only retain his status as the top player on the circuit if he wins in Dubai and Stenson finishes outside the top 45, Willett outside the top five and Noren outside the top two.
On Sunday, the Northern Irishman said he was more interested in trying to displace Australian Jason Day at the top of the world rankings than retaining his order of merit crown.
“I still have a lot to play for this week,” the world No 2 told Sky Sports. “If I can win I will finish the year as world No 1, so that’s a huge incentive.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The%20specs
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