Henrik Stenson - The Iceman Cometh

Henrik Stenson has often been described as the “Best Player Without a Major”. Charles McLaughlin met with the popular Swede in Shanghai and explains why 2016 could well be his year.

His wife, Emma, isn’t here. Unlike Stenson, she was a US college golfer of no mean ability, a member of the team at the University of South Carolina. Following a mutual friend’s introduction in 1997, Henrik spent a lot of time at USC and was invited to practice and spend time with the team, gaining priceless experience. “We actually both played in the Norwegian Amateur some years earlier, but never met,” he continues.

The Stenson story is a play in three acts: bursting onto the scene, the “lull”, and the resurgence.

After turning pro in 1999, Henrik won the Challenge Tour Order of Merit title in 2000, then in 2001 won on his first year on the European Tour. A steady rise up the rankings ensued, including winning the Omega Mission Hills World Cup (with Robert Karlsson) in 2008 and culminating in his Players Championship win in 2009. Following that victory at Sawgrass, the Swede was number four in the world. Then it all went wrong.

It isn’t a topic he likes to discuss, and mention is made of driving yips and various other technical maladies that he is (rightly) recognised for working exceptionally hard to overcome. However, perhaps the real reason for his precipitous slide to 230 in the rankings was his involvement with the Stanford Financial Group, his sponsor at that time. When the US authorities seized control of the group in early 2009, they described it as a “massive Ponzi scheme”. Unfortunately for Henrik, in addition to losing a sponsor, he also had most of his personal fortune invested with the group, and reportedly lost over US$8 million when it collapsed.

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