Dubai: Last year’s champion Henrik Stenson is hoping to make this week “very special” by giving himself a chance to win the year-ending DP World Tour Championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estates.
In May 2014, Stenson reached a career high ranking of number two in the world, and over the course of the year he achieved career-best finishes at the Masters with a tied 14th, the US Open with a tied fourth, while tying a career-best finish at the PGA Championship with a tied third finish.
His results got better as the season progressed and the good-humoured Swede finished runner-up at the Volvo World Match Play Championships in October followed by a third place at last week’s Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Antalya, Turkey. “I haven’t defended a title as yet, so I couldn’t think of a much better place to do it than here this week,” said Stenson, who tees off at 12.30 pm on Thursday along with this year’s champion Rory McIlroy.
“I’m pretty pleased with the overall performance. It was going to be a tough year, especially early in the season. I was battling a bit of fatigue and when you’re in a bit of a bad spell there, if you’re tired, you don’t have the energy to practise and get going with the game and then it just becomes a bit of a bad cycle,” Stenson said.
However, he managed to turn the corner later in the year and the results have shown since then. “From late spring and onwards, it’s been quite all right and I contended in a few events and had a couple of strong results. Overall it’s not a bad season by any means. I think I got close to 200 World Ranking points on the board, which is always a good indicator for a strong season,” he said.
“It’s a win that’s missing, and hopefully I can take the opportunity here. But I can make it a very special week for myself by playing well here and hopefully give myself a chance to win. Otherwise, we will try and come back and do it early next year,” Stenson promised.
With things going his way, Stenson is particularly excited about 2015. “I feel like I found a good rhythm to it and giving myself those breaks for rest and practise and gym work and everything. I kind of had a great formula from 2012 and into 2013, and then I felt like I slipped out of that one a little bit due to a lot of different reasons. I’m excited about trying to get back into that, because it was a pretty good recipe I had. So I want to get back to doing all the little bits and pieces right and focus on all those processes, rather than trying to find your game and work on your game when you’re out here. When I’m out here, I’m here to be fresh and be ready to compete,” he added.
