Scots turf is sacred for Stenson
BACK where it all went so spectacularly right, on a stretch of Ayrshire coastline he will always consider sacred, reigning Open champion Henrik Stenson could hardly pick a better spot for a return to winning form.
Walking the same turf and breathing the same sea air that fuelled last year’s incredible triumph at Royal Troon has to be worth a shot or two to the big Swede when he tees off in the AAM Scottish Open here at Dundonald Links, just a few miles down the road from the scene of his finest hour.
And, should he need a little extra oomph before setting off in a glamour group alongside Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler? Well, he can always dig out the official DVD of his career-defining victory. Again.
Fast-forwarding through every shot played by ‘the other guys’, as is his wont. And focusing on the titanic Sunday afternoon tussle with Phil Mickelson which was instantly hailed — by no less than Jack Nicklaus — as perhaps the greatest closing-round contest in the history of The Open.
Stenson, always as cool as the other side of the pillow, confessed yesterday that he occasionally takes a peek at footage of the performance that saw him lift the Claret Jug aloft. Yet, incredibly, he admitted: ‘I guess I have a bit of a perfectionist on one of my shoulders — because I can and still pick flaws in it.
‘Which is both kind of good and bad, because it’s an amazing round of golf, given the circumstances, as well.
‘But that’s the beauty of this game. You’re never done. You’re never finished. You can always be better.
‘In the first couple of months I watched highlights at different times, and then I actually sat down (to watch it). I think it was after the FedEx last year, after a busy summer.
‘I sat down and watched the final round. Even though I fast-forwarded a little bit when the other guys were playing, I watched all of my shots!
‘And yeah, maybe this week is not a bad one to take it out and look at what happened last year.
‘To be back here on a beautiful day, it’s easy to remember last summer, of course, and what we managed to accomplish a little bit down the road there.’
Asked if he’d ever sat down to discuss the events of that Sunday with Mickelson, whose remarkable final round of 65
still wasn’t enough to secure victory, Stenson laughed as he declared: ‘I haven’t proposed it, which I think is very wise.
‘We don’t spend that many evenings together. But, if we were to spend an evening together, I’m not sure that he wants to sit there and watch Troon over again, to be honest.’
It would be stretching credulity to describe Stenson’s form since that Open win as anything akin to a slump; his list of achievements over the past 12 months including an Olympic silver medal and a handful of top-ten — even top-five — finishes. But he hasn’t won.
Explaining how his life had changed since last summer, the 41-year-old said: ‘It’s kind of like before and after having kids.
‘When you have kids, your life changes and it’s like you can’t believe what you did with all the time you had before.
‘I don’t know what I did with my time before I had the Claret Jug in my possession.’
Stenson definitely added something to his make-up with a major win that — for many — felt like it had been a long time coming.
‘I think I always had the belief that I could manage to win a major championship,’ he said.
‘But at the same time, you can never be 100-per-cent sure until you actually do it.’