Alex Noren will face England’s Anthony Wall in the Aberdeen Asset Management Paul Lawrie Match Play final on Sunday as the Swede looks to win his second title on Scottish soil in as many months.
Noren, winner of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart in July, overcame compatriot Johan Carlsson 4 and 2 in the morning’s quarter-finals at Archerfield before seeing off England’s James Morrison 3 and 2 in the afternoon.
Wall, who has played 431 European Tour events since collecting the only win of his career in South Africa 16 years ago, chipped in for eagle to beat Haydn Porteous in the morning and edged out compatriot Oliver Fisher at the fourth extra hole in the afternoon.
Five successive birdies from the second had sent Noren four clear in his last-eight match and Carlsson never threatened to draw level.
The 33 year old, a five-time winner on the European Tour, made a similarly hot start after lunch as an opening hat-trick of gains put him three up on Morrison.
A ten-footer for birdie at the seventh sent Noren four clear, and although Morrison won the ninth and tenth to halve the deficit, he failed to get-up-and-down from a bunker at the 11th.
A birdie from 15 feet at the 12th kept Morrison interested, but Noren holed a ten-footer at the next to restore a three-up lead that he refused to relinquish on the way in.
“It feels amazing,” - Alex Noren
“I've never even been close in a match play event before, and it's pretty hard mentally these matches, but I like it.”
Noren is currently 14th on The Race to Dubai – which matches his career-high finish from 2011 – and admits this may be the best golf he has ever produced.
“Probably best consistency,” he added. “I think this year has been quite consistent. Maybe not super golf all the time, but pretty consistent.”
Wall was never behind against Fisher, taking the seventh only to see his opponent level with a birdie from 20 feet on the next.
The 41 year old immediately regained his advantage as Fisher paid for a wayward drive at the ninth, but Wall bogeyed the 17th and it was not until the fourth extra hole that he got up-and-down from the rough to settle the tie.
"Obviously sorry for Oli, because it was a good game and someone had to lose," said Wall.
"It's a shame, because we're good pals and we played well. It was a good game."
Wall and Noren will contest the final at 11.05am on Sunday, with the third-place play-off between Fisher and Morrison going out 15 minutes earlier.
