Henrik Stenson believes it will be the ‘icing on the cake’ if he were to become the first male-born Sweden golfer to win a Major.
Stenson is commencing his new season contesting the three European Tour ‘Desert Swing’ events and starting with this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The 37-year old current World No. 3 last year enjoyed easily the best season of his 15-year pro career capped in becoming the first-ever player to win both the FedEx Cup Play-Off Series on the PGA Tour and also be crowned European No. 1 with his victory last November and just an hour’s drive away in Dubai.
Henrik Stenson heads into 2014 looking to become the first Swedish born male to win a Major.
He did so playing the later part of the season troubled by a nagging right wrist injury.
Stenson arrived in Abu Dhabi having been voted ‘Males Sports Athlete of the Year, as well the prestigious Radiosportens Jerringpris, which is voted on by the Swedish public and given for the top sporting accomplishment of the year.
Stenson is only the second golfer to have won Sweden’s ‘Male Athlete of the Year’ behind Robert Karlsson, who was honoured for his European Tour Order of Merit success in 2008 while Annika Sorenstam is the only other golfer to receive the Radiosportens Jerringpris, collecting the honor in 1995 and 2003.
And while Sorenstam captured 10 women’s Majors in his career Stenson is determined to succeed in being the first Swedish male to taste success at golf’s highest level.
“It’s important for me because we haven’t had a male Swedish golfing winning a major championship yet,” he said.
“I’m very positive it will happen at some point. Hopefully I can be the one, but it will happen at some stage, and for me, it’s going to be about good preparations.
“I did some good preparations last summer and I was up there in both The Open Championship and the US PGA. I played a lot of better golf at the Tour Championship in Atlanta and the Dubai final.
“So if I can go good preparations, and hopefully play as good as I did at those two events, then I hope to be there in the mix even more than I was at those two Majors I mentioned.
“But then took a lot of positives out of finishing second at Muirfield and third at Oak Hill and still feel like there was more to give.
“Of course, winning a major it’s the last kind of thing to add on my C.V. That would be the icing on the cake. I have won some great tournaments around the world, and last year, both the FedEx Cup and winning The Race to Dubai, I’ve played on Ryder Cup teams, and I have won the World Cup, and I’m not going to bore you.
“But winning a major is the one thing missing. So that’s going to be my main focus, to try and prepare well, and then again, we know the stars need to be aligned to you. It’s four tournaments out of a 40-tournament schedule.”
While it is has been six years this year since Stenson last competed in a Ryder Cup he is currently almost assured automatic selection given he enjoys such a commanding lead on the European World Points List.
Stenson will contest the opening two rounds of this week’s $US 2.7m event in the company of England’s Luke Donald and Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn.
