The Open's Honorable Mentions

Filed in archive Golf News on July 21, 2008

Alexander Noren. Courtesy: daylife.com

As the dust settles in the aftermath of The Open, consider the work of two players who seemed to fly under the radar as far as North American television coverage went.

First, Chris Wood, the 20 year old British amateur player who not only made the cut at Royal Birkdale but fired a superb final round of 72 on Sunday to finish at 10 over par and take the silver medal as top amateur.



Good grief, he was only 7 shots behind the winner, Paddy Harrington.

But he got little coverage from TNT or ABC who carried the golf in North America. Yes, he was seen on Sunday several times because he was in the third to last pairing with Ian Poulter - who finished second.

At least the BBC paid some attention. Here's their interview.

That was far more coverage than Swedish golfer, Alexander Noren received. I don't think I saw him once, yet he was on page one of the leaderboard every day, including early Sunday.

Noren has been on tour since only 2005. This was his first Open tournament and a peak at his European Tour stats show how he is improving each year in key areas -except putting.

And it was putting that let him down at Royal Birkdale where he was over the field average in putts per round.

The beauty of majors like The Open is that they bring out the best in every player in the field.

We'll be hearing from Chris Wood and Alexander Noren in the future. I guarantee they'll receive far more coverage.