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Nedbank Golf Challenge Top 10 power rankings

By Mike Randleman

SUN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA - NOVEMBER 13: Alex Noren of Sweden hits his second shot on the 13th hole during day four of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on November 13, 2016 in Sun City, South Africa. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
SUN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA - NOVEMBER 13: Alex Noren of Sweden hits his second shot on the 13th hole during day four of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on November 13, 2016 in Sun City, South Africa. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images) /
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I wonder if Alex Norén is getting sick of defending titles. This will be the fourth and final time the 35-year-old returns to the site of a win in 2016.

His 2017 hasn’t been as scorching as last year, but a win at the elite BMW PGA Championship and five other top-10s isn’t a bad follow-up year. The Swede is hopeful to make his first Ryder Cup team next year and could help the cause by performing well again in Sun City.

In his first Nedbank Golf Challenge appearance, Norén ran over the field in topping runner-up Jeunghun Wang by six shots. He pulled off a rare feat, improving by 12 shots from Saturday (75) to Sunday (63). No other player posted better than 67 in the final round.

His victory was built on the strategy to not get overaggressive.

“I think me and my caddie worked on a lot to try to go for the right places on the green, because there’s so many tricky pins here,” Norén said last year. “They tuck those pins away up in the corners of the greens, and it’s easy to make bogeys.”

Norén hasn’t been able to surpass 70 percent GIR like in recent years, but his putter has helped him out, staying below 1.8 putts per GIR for the seventh season in a row. He’s also 63.77 percent out of the sand.

In his last five starts, Norén has tied for 67th (at the PGA Championship), T6, MC, T38 and T31 at the WGC-HSBC Champions.

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