Noren wins the British Masters

Alex Noren won the British Masters supported by Sky Sports by two shots to secure his third European Tour title of the season.

"My putting was probably the best thing this week," said Noren

ENGLAND, 17 Oct 2016, (European Tour) - The Swede, who has also tasted victory at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open and Omega European Masters this year, produced a closing 69 at The Grove to finish on 18 under par, two strokes ahead of nearest challenger Bernd Wiesberger.

Home favourite Lee Westwood finished third after posting a superb final-round 67 to reach 15 under.

Play was suspended early on Sunday due to flooded greens but the fourth round got under way at 10.05 local time, with some players starting at the tenth tee.

Beginning the day with a three-shot lead, Noren made the perfect start to his fourth round, notching birdies at each of his first two holes to climb to 18 under.

Noren dropped his first shot of the day at the eighth after narrowly missing his ten foot birdie putt.

The 34 year old then saw his advantage reduced to a single shot when he carded another bogey at the 11th.

And he dropped into a share of the lead when Austrian Wiesberger holed his 12-foot birdie putt at the long 15th to join him on 16 under.

But Noren regained the outright lead immediately, notching a birdie at the 15th to get back to 17 under.

After safely parring the next two holes, Noren finished with a tap-in birdie at the last to clinch his seventh European Tour title in all.

After struggling at times in his final round, Noren was delighted with his finish. He said: "I had a tough time with the distances off my wedges and irons in the middle there and my caddie stepped in.

"Sometimes you're a little bit blind yourself. You think you hit a good shot but it comes up short, and you never want to blame yourself but he kind of told me what was going on.

"Then at the last three-and-half holes, I managed to play the best I played all week, so I'm really happy and proud about that.

My putting was probably the best thing this week. I holed a lot of putts. My chipping and wedge game was a lot better, so it helped me out."

On the subject of clinching his third win of the season, Noren added: "It's an amazing feeling. Honestly I never thought this would happen."

Wiesberger, starting the day four shots behind leader Noren, opened his final round with a birdie at the first before picking up another shot at the fifth hole.

The 31 year old carded his only bogey of the day at the sixth before sending his approach to within five feet at the eighth and tapping in for a birdie.

Wiesberger moved to 15 under when he began the back nine with a gain at the tenth before holing his 12-foot birdie putt at the 15th to join Noren at the top of the leaderboard.

Pars at the final three holes saw Wiesberger finish his fourth round in 67 shots.

Wiesberger said: "It wasn't easy out there today. I didn't drive it really well on the first nine, which was really hard because I felt really comfortable with drives on the first three days.

"I just had to find a couple more fairways and felt more comfortable on the back nine.

"To finish well in a strong field like this, it helps going into the final couple of events this year."

Englishmen Richard Bland and Tommy Fleetwood, Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, Swede Peter Hanson and France's Alexander Levy finished in a share of fourth on 13 under.