Torrey Pines, California ..

Alex Noren brilliantly sent the Sweden flag to the top of the leaderboard on day three of the Farmers Insurance Open.

Noren birdied two of his closing three holes in a round of 69 to move to 11-under par and a shot clear of American Ryan Palmer (73) while defending champion, Jon Rahm struggled in the near benign conditions shooting a horror 75 to drop back to a share of 12th place on seven under par.

Seven-time Farmers winner, Tiger Woods scrambled his round to a round of 70 to head into the final round of his first PGA Tour event in a year sharing 39th place at three-under par.

Noren, 35 is contesting this week’s $USD 6.9m event thanks to a sponsor’s invitation and he’s made the most of his appearance with earlier scores of 70 and 66.

Alex Noren plants a kiss on the 2017 BMW PGA Championship trophy.

“I felt a lot more comfortable off the tee compared to the first two days,” he said.

“You know, been able to shape it both ways, which is a big thing over here with the wind picking up a little bit today, just trying to find the fairways. Yeah, it felt good. I felt quite good in Malaysia during the Eurasia Cup, then I got here, three days with my coach, and yeah, it feels good.

“And then obviously it’s a tough day tomorrow but I’m looking forward to it.”

Noren arrived to the course laid out on clifftops overlooking the Pacific Ocean for a first time and teeing-up in his first full tournament of the New Year.

“It is a ball-striker’s course, but also if you miss a few shots here and there it’s not — at the end of the day you can still manage to maybe get it onto the green because there’s an opening to every green, you can run it up from the rough,” he said.

“I think you’ve got to play strategically, you can go for a few pins if you’ve got a good lie, and if you don’t, you’ve got to play smart to avoid bogeys. I think that’s been my strength, to avoid those bogeys and then the birdies will come. But yeah, I kept my cool, I think that’s about it.”

And while many golf fans in the U.S. would not have heard of Noren, he’s won nine European Tour events and none bigger than last year’s BMW PGA where he shot a blistering final round 62.

“Well, it would mean a lot, you know. I’ve dreamt of winning on the U.S. Tour. I played college golf over here,” he said.

“I love playing on the European Tour, and to get a chance to play over here, too, has been amazing. But yeah, to win would be very, very big for my confidence, I think, and playing around these courses like we’re going to have the U.S. Open here in a few years, so it would be massive.”