Sweden's Alex Noren held off a determined challenge from Britain's former winner Bradley Dredge to claim his maiden title at the European Masters Sunday. A closing five-under-par 66 for a 20-under 264 total, left Noren two strokes better than 2006 Swiss champion Dredge (65). The 27-year-old winner from Stockholm was pushed hard for his first success, only a chip-in eagle late on finally shaking off Dredge. Noren earned $471,000 for his victory and also picked up the maximum 333,330 points in Europe's first Ryder Cup counting event of a year-long campaign. Noren's two-shot overnight lead over the field going into the final round was canceled out by Dredge's blistering run around the turn in which he fired an eagle and three birdies in five holes. However, the Welshman could do nothing about Noren's eagle on the long 15th when he pitched in from a bunker to re-establish his two-shot lead. Three safe pars earned Noren his title in his third full year on tour and got the Swede off to the best possible start in the Ryder Cup race. Runner-up Dredge, who has said the 2010 Ryder Cup match in his home country Wales is his chief career target, could console himself with a 222,220-point haul. Fellow-Briton Ross McGowan (65) finished a further stroke adrift of Noren. Spanish 45-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez (67) took fourth place on 15-under, a shot better than the Asian Tour's top finisher in the first co-sanctioned event, Thongchai Jaidee (67) of Thailand. Jaidee's finish ensured he stayed in the elite top-15 of the Race to Dubai that will share out a $10-million bonus pool in the tour's finale. Pettersen seizes lead Suzann Pettersen of Norway defied difficult, windy conditions to shoot a five-under 66 Saturday and take an imposing five-stroke lead after three rounds of the Canadian Women's Open. Petterson, who shared the overnight lead, had a 14-under total of 199, five shots in front of American Angela Stanford, who carded a 69 for 204. Australian Hall of Famer Karrie Webb posted a 68 for 205, with Mexican Lorena Ochoa (72) and South Korean Kim In-Kyung (69) a further shot back on 206. Pettersen is in search of her first LPGA tour victory since 2007, a breakout season in which she won five titles. She came close in Portland last week, losing in a playoff. South Korea's Kim Song-hee followed her tournament-record nine-under 62, which saw her tied for the lead coming into the round, with a 77 to fall into a tie for 21st. Pettersen's round included six birdies and one bogey. She capped her effort with birdie at the par-five 18th, where her chip from the greenside rough left her a tap-in. Pettersen led by as many as six for much of the day. Stanford drained a 60-foot eagle putt at the final hole to edge a shot closer. And Stanford knows from her own bitter experience that Pettersen's lead is not insurmountable, having surrendered a four-shot lead in the final round at London Hunt in 2006 to lose the Canadian Open title by a stroke to Cristie Kerr.
