Henrik Stenson was famous for reasons he never imagined.
Two months ago, he was best known as the Swede who stripped down to nothing but his underwear and a golf glove while playing from a water hazard at Doral. Out of curiosity, he searched the Internet and found 143 articles, more news than he ever got for his game.
henrik stenson
Picture © Getty Images“I guess I got as much attention off that thing as from my results the last 10 years,” he said.
His golf was all the rage Sunday at The Players Championship.
With a final round that was close to perfect, Stenson was the only player to keep bogeys off his card on his way to a 6-under 66 that gave him a four-shot victory, the 10th of his career and by far his biggest.
“This is obviously going to be the latest thing on the resume,” Stenson said.
Trailing by five shots on the treacherous TPC Sawgrass, he took advantage of a swift and shocking collapse by Alex Cejka, never had to worry about Tiger Woods and blew away everyone else in firm, fast conditions rarely seen this side of a major.
“I was thinking this that if I could finish in front of Tiger, that might be good enough,” said Ian Poulter, who shot a 70 and to finish second. “But I wasn’t expecting someone to go out there and shoot 66.”
The sun-baked gallery was curious how Cejka would fare with a five-shot lead playing in the final group with Woods. Four holes and a little more than an hour into the final round, the lead was gone. Cejka shot 42 on the front and wound up with a 79.
Focus quickly shifted to Woods, and whether he could rally to win from five shots behind as he did at Bay Hill. But not this time. Woods missed three fairways that led to bogeys on the front nine, and trailed by as many as eight shots on the back nine.
“When you’re playing a golf course like this and you don’t have it, and the greens are this fast and this hard, you can shoot some pretty high numbers,” he said.
Woods managed a 73 to finish eighth, his first top 10 at The Players Championship since he won in 2001, and his 16th consecutive top 10 in stroke-play events worldwide.
Stenson played so well that he had a four-shot leading standing on the 17th tee, his only mission to make sure it found grass beneath it. He kept his bogey-free round in tact to the end, walking off the green with his daughter in his arms.
“It’s just going to give me a lot of confidence to go out there and control myself and play as well as I did on the last day at TPC Sawgrass and to hold off such a strong field,” he said. “It’s just going to give me a lot of confidence going into the majors. Obviously, if I can play as well as I did today, I surely can do it on a Sunday at the majors.”
Stenson finished at 12-under 276 and earned $1.71 million for a victory that moves him to No. 5 in the world ranking.
John Mallinger (70) and Kevin Na (70) tied for third. They were among a dozen players who had hopes of winning on the back nine, one of the most unpredictable stretches in golf.
Stenson, a Swede who shows little emotion even when playing in his skivvies, never gave anyone much hope. His 66 matched the best score of the final round— Aaron Baddeley also had a 66 with the first tee time of the day—and was nearly 7.5 strokes better than the field average.
Stenson missed only one fairway.
The only times he came remotely close to a bogey, he holed par putts of 8 feet on the front nine.
Stenson rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt from just short of the seventh green and joined a four-way tie atop the leaderboard that included Poulter, Ben Crane and Retief Goosen. Stenson took the outright lead with a two-putt birdie from 55 feet on the fringe at the ninth.
It was over a short time later.
Stenson hammered a tee shot—the only time he hit driver in the final round — on the par-5 11th, hit 4-iron to a front bunker and blasted out to 6 feet for birdie. He took aim at the flag on the par-3 13th for a 10-footer, then seized control for good after watching Poulter celebrate a birdie on the 15th to pull within two shots.
Stenson hit wedge to 2 1/2 feet to match him, then reached the par-5 16th in two for another birdie. And once his ball found the island green at No. 17, he could relax.
“I could afford to go bogey-bogey and still win it,” Stenson said. “That’s always a handy situation to be in.”
Stenson’s other U.S. victory came at the Accenture Match Play Championship two years ago against the top 64 players in the world. He also won in Dubai, finishing two shots ahead of Woods. The Players has the strongest and deepest field in golf.
“It just seems to bring the best out of me when I have to, playing the best players,” Stenson said. “And obviously, now I feel like I’m up there where I belong when I’m playing good.”
FINAL SCORES
276 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 69 73 66
280 Ian Poulter (Eng) 67 68 75 70
281 Kevin Na 71 66 74 70, John Mallinger 66 71 74 70
282 Brian Davis (Eng) 71 69 71 71, Ben Crane 65 73 72 72, Jim Furyk 68 74 71 69
283 Tiger Woods 71 69 70 73
284 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 71 71 76 66, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 72 74 67, David Toms 67 70 77 70, Tim Clark (Rsa) 72 69 74 69, Alex Cejka (Ger) 66 67 72 79
285 Jeff Klauk 71 72 71 71, Paul Casey (Eng) 70 69 76 70, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 75 65 72 73, Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 66 75 71, Mike Weir (Can) 72 72 73 68, Camilo Villegas (Col) 67 72 75 71, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 65 77 71, Matt Kuchar 72 72 73 68
286 Steve Stricker 71 71 71 73, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 67 72 71 76, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 73 73 69, Woody Austin 72 72 68 74, Ben Curtis 71 72 69 74, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 70 72 73 71, Scott Piercy 71 72 74 69, Tommy Armour III 74 70 70 72, Kenny Perry 73 71 68 74, Justin Rose (Eng) 70 71 72 73
287 Justin Leonard 70 69 75 73, Zach Johnson 72 71 70 74, Jason Dufner 67 70 77 73, Billy Mayfair 70 74 69 74, Kevin Sutherland 73 67 72 75
288 John Rollins 68 76 70 74, Charley Hoffman 70 69 76 73, Jeff Overton 71 67 75 75, John Senden (Aus) 72 69 72 75, Tim Petrovic 68 70 75 75, Bubba Watson 67 75 72 74, Luke Donald (Eng) 74 70 71 73, Jonathan Byrd 67 72 71 78
289 Michael Letzig 71 68 74 76, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 66 72 74 77, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 69 73 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 72 70 75 72
290 Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 73 72 75, Scott Verplank 67 74 73 76, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 68 73 75 74, Stephen Ames (Can) 70 71 75 74, Jason Bohn 72 71 74 73, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 72 72 74 72
291 Phil Mickelson 73 71 71 76, Brad Adamonis 67 76 74 74, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 73 69 78, Heath Slocum 75 69 71 76, Mark Wilson 69 72 75 75
292 Johnson Wagner 69 73 72 78, Rocco Mediate 73 71 74 74, Chez Reavie 70 72 75 75
293 Michael Allen 71 70 74 78
294 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 74 76 76, Steve Flesch 75 69 74 76
295 John Merrick 70 72 74 79, Cameron Beckman 72 72 73 78
296 Pat Perez 72 72 74 78, Jeff Quinney 73 70 75 78
298 Ryan Moore 71 68 75 84
WD: Weekley Boo 73 67 73
