Henrik Stenson has been known to smash a club or two during his pro career.
If you’ve ever played golf then you know it can be a frustrating game that can lead to you yelling a bunch of bad words at the sky or even throwing a club in a fit of anger that has nothing to do with the club but rather the person using the club.
That happens to professional golfers, too. They’re human, after all, and golf likes messing with humans.
Henrik Stenson has been known to smash a club or two during his career on the PGA Tour and he did it again during Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship. He always seems to do the damage in a respectful manner, which is pretty classy of him.
He did that on the 15th hole so he only had to play his last three holes a club down, which is also a smart time to take out some frustrations on your club. Guy just gets it.
Stenson actually shot a 1-under 71 on Sunday but finished the tournament way bak at 8 over.
Now let’s all get ready back to the Phil Mickelson show.
If you’ve ever played golf then you know it can be a frustrating game that can lead to you yelling a bunch of bad words at the sky or even throwing a club in a fit of anger that has nothing to do with the club but rather the person using the club.
That happens to professional golfers, too. They’re human, after all, and golf likes messing with humans.
Henrik Stenson has been known to smash a club or two during his career on the PGA Tour and he did it again during Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship. He always seems to do the damage in a respectful manner, which is pretty classy of him.
He did that on the 15th hole so he only had to play his last three holes a club down, which is also a smart time to take out some frustrations on your club. Guy just gets it.
Stenson actually shot a 1-under 71 on Sunday but finished the tournament way bak at 8 over.
Now let’s all get ready for the Phil Mickelson show.
AVONDALE, La. – The foursomes format for round two of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans sent scores soaring on Friday. After Thursday’s birdie barrage in four-ball (best ball), par became a friend again for the field in the alternate-shot format. …
AVONDALE, La. – The foursomes format for round two of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans sent scores soaring on Friday. After Thursday’s birdie barrage in four-ball (best ball), par became a friend again for the field in the alternate-shot format. Rounds went from relatively stress-free to stressful.
Trust and a certain comfort level with a partner became paramount and not surprisingly two teams rose to the challenge.
“It’s never going to be as tricky when you’ve got a good partner like I do,” said Henrik Stenson of his teammate Justin Rose.
Stenson and Rose are both in their 40s and while their games have taken a recent dip, they continue to make sweet music as a duet. They teamed to shoot the low round of the morning wave, a 4-under-par 68 to grab the clubhouse lead at 11-under 133, and one stroke ahead of South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.
Rose and Stenson have a wonderful Ryder Cup pedigree, including a 3-1 record in foursomes and were victorious in both of their foursome matches at the 2018 Cup in France. But they had shot 71, 72 and 73 in three previous rounds of foursomes at TPC Louisiana, where they have teamed to miss the cut in 2017 and finished T-19 in 2018.
Stenson’s game has been downright pitiful of late, missing six straight cuts before finishing T-38 at the Masters, but said he’s heading in the right direction.
“I shouldn’t say this while my partner is listening; it’s not always that I feel as confident as maybe some of the shots that I pulled off today, but it’s work in progress,” Stenson said.
On Friday, the Swede delivered the goods, including a 7-iron from 179 to 5 feet to set up a birdie at the par-4 12th hole, which happened to be the only hole Team Rose-Stenson both bogeyed in best ball.
“Henrik was a rock today,” Rose said. “I was kind of looking at it in terms of I don’t think he made one mistake that led to us dropping a shot really. It was pretty fun just to have someone that was so solid today. He pulled his weight today.”
On the three occasions when Team Rose-Stenson made bogey, they bounced back with birdie, making seven circles on the card in all. England’s Rose has endured his own recent rough patch and struggled with a back injury ahead of the Masters before contending to the finish and a tie for seventh.
“The biggest thing is you have to trust yourself but then you’ve got to trust your partner, but more so you have to trust yourself,” Rose said. “You’ve got to not worry about what your partner is going to be facing and I think it’s all about committing to your shots.”
Louis Oosthuizen at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana on April 22, 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
That level of trust has to be earned together in the trenches. The South African pair of Oosthuizen and Schwartzel are former Presidents Cup teammates and have built trust between them over decades of competition that dates to the South African Boys’ Champions (Under-13 division). Oosthuizen was 12, Schwartzel 10.
“I think we know each other really well,” Oosthuizen said. “So, we’re very comfortable together, and never once really said sorry to the guy.”
While Schwartzel and Oosthuizen grew up in opposite corners of the country – Schwartzel in the northern part and Oosthuizen down south – their friendship blossomed traveling to golf tournaments throughout Africa and India and then on the European and PGA Tours.
The pair, who dressed in different shades of green but matching white pants, belts, hats and shoes, was pleased as punch to shoot 1-under 71 in difficult conditions on Friday, especially after starting 2 over through their first six holes of alternate shot. After a critical par at 16 to stem the bleeding, they made three birdies on the par 5s coming home and an all-world par at No. 6 after Schwartzel’s second shot from an old divot and with mud on the ball sailed into trouble left.
“Luckily I had a clear shot, but adjusted nicely and pitched it up there and he made quite a few of those length putts today,” Oosthuizen said of a 7-foot par putt. “It definitely felt like a net birdie.”
When Schwartzel was asked what was his partner’s best shot on Friday had been, Oosthuizen interjected, “Well, there wasn’t many.”
When their laughter subsided, Schwartzel said, “He drives the ball so well, and he makes me really uncomfortable. I’m not used to hitting out of so many fairways.”
On Saturday, these veteran teams of Rose-Stenson and Oosthuizen-Schwartzel will try to keep the magic going when the format flips back to four-ball and they can return to – pick your expression – trying to brother-in-law-it or ham-n-egg it. When asked if there was a South African version of those classic American idioms, Oosthuizen said, “We call it dovetail. I don’t know why, but yeah, we call it dovetail.”
These are the teams to watch at the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana.
Get ready for one of the most unique events on the professional golf schedule.
Established in 1938, the PGA Tour makes its annual stop in Louisiana this week for the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, held April 22-25 at TPC Louisiana in Avondale.
The Zurich Classic became a team event in 2017, with Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith as the inaugural winners of the new format. Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy won in 2018. Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm are back to defend their 2019 title after the 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are eight teams worth watching this week in Louisiana.
Ryder Cup stalwarts Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are giving it one more try at the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson have a unique, shared history in golf.
The two go way back to their amateur days, but are most known for their dominant partnership in the Ryder Cup, where they boast an impressive 6-2 record. Rose won the gold medal in the 2016 Olympic Games, beating Stenson, the silver medalist. Both players have won 20-plus professional events worldwide and each has earned a FedEx Cup title, Stenson in 2013 and Rose in 2018.
But that shared history and past success has yet to make its way to TPC Louisiana and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In two previous appearances together, the pairing missed the cut in 2017 and finished T-19 in 2018, poor performances by their lofty standards.
“Teamed up the first two years and we didn’t have much success, so we obviously are hoping and looking to turn that around this time,” said Stenson in the team’s pre-tournament press conference. “It’s like a bit of a fresh air to see something slightly different compared to the regular 72-hole tournaments that we play most of the time. So really fun week and looking forward to teaming up with Justin and turning that fabulous record that we have here around this week.”
“I actually feel like there’s a lot of pressure on us because reading between the lines, Henrik phoned me up and said, ‘Hello, partner, should we give it one more try?’” joked Rose, a Zurich ambassador who won the event in 2015 before it became a team event in 2017.
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If anything, the two less-than-stellar performances at the Zurich are somewhat of a benefit for Rose and Stenson.
“I think that is always that temptation to say ‘sorry’ or that temptation to try to be too perfect or that temptation, yeah, it’s not wanting to let your partner down, but we have let each other down multiple times already, so I think we’re over that hurdle,” explained Rose.
“There’s certainly that element that you don’t want to let your partner down, but you do that by trying to do your best and trying to play as freely as you can,” added Stenson. “And, yeah, we are both going to miss and no one’s doing that intentionally, so it’s just to move on and get on with it, and I think a key part is that we know each other so well for many years, both playing together in the Ryder Cups but also playing amateur golf, and kind of, yeah, going way back, as they say.”
“So we know each other and trust each other and I think that’s been obviously key to our success as well in the Ryder Cups and having that comfort. And we also play a very similar game, I would say, when we play our finest and that makes it kind of easy out of a strategic and tactical standpoint as well.”
All proceeds from the sale of this limited-edition hoodie will go towards changing the face of golf through the LPGA Renee Powell Fund and the Clearview Legacy Foundation. 🙌
Rose and his wife, Kate, founded the Rose Ladies Series in 2020 to provide playing opportunities while the Ladies European Tour was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stenson and LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam will host the Scandinavian Mixed, a co-sanctioned event by the European Tour and Ladies European Tour, June 10-13 at Sweden’s Vallda Golf & Country Club. The tournament will feature 78 men and 78 women on the same course, competing for one prize fund and one trophy for the first time.
“It’s a unique one, the first of its kind having both men and women playing together in the same tournament for the same prize check,” Stenson said of the mixed event. “And it is going to be interesting to see, I’m sure we are going to have some little challenges getting the setup and getting all that to work out perfectly the first year, but it’s innovative and inclusive concept and it’s not just going to be a celebration of golf in Sweden on the men’s and women’s side, it’s, I think it’s going to be an event that’s going to be seen and heard around the world, really, and that’s really the part where you can get those benefits and really spread the word around.”
Rose said he doesn’t see an even pay structure happening in golf without the women’s game being highlighted to the point where fans at home have the chance to get to know the players as more than a name on a leaderboard.
“And obviously that’s sort of been what the Rose Ladies Series is all about, creating a platform for them to play through lockdown and also try to support times of the year where their schedule isn’t as strong,” said Rose. “So just giving – like as an athlete you got to keep your skill set sharp, so we’re trying to support the playing opportunities, but at the same time very cognizant of telling the stories and trying to create the upward profile so the journey towards a better pay equality is possible and that’s why (the Scandinavian Mixed) is amazing.”
Check out the notable PGA Tour players who didn’t make the cut and won’t be playing the weekend at the Honda Classic in Florida.
Golf fans and tournament officials let out a sigh of relief as an event that started out missing some star power will actually have its marquee players advance to the weekend.
Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler are among those who survived the Bear Trap and made the cut at the Honda Classic this week at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Several other big names, however, were not so fortunate and were slamming trunks on Friday evening, including the biggest headline maker from the last two weekends to not win. Check out the most notable players who missed the cut this week at the Honda.
“We’ve confused his mind trying to get him back to … 2016, searching too much for perfection instead of sticking to the basic stuff.”
The north end of the Thursday leaderboard at the Players Championship is usually where you find small triumphs, men who survived their first-round bout without face-planting on Pete Dye’s celebrated canvas. The south end of that leaderboard is where you find tiny tragedies, and none of the 154 competitors here appeared more lamentable than Henrik Stenson.
Less than five years ago, the 44-year-old Swede was good enough to win the Open Championship. He won the Players in 2009 too. But as the day wore on, Stenson was 20 strokes off Sergio Garcia’s lead and firmly DFL after an atrocious 85.
Stenson’s day was littered with dregs: six 6s, a 7, a triple-bogey on 17, five other bogeys, and two anomalous birdies that wrong-turned into an orgy of scorecard destruction.
His previous worst score in 48 rounds at TPC Sawgrass was 79, a benchmark he blew by on the 17th green when his 63-footer for bogey came up five feet short. Afterward, I asked his coach, Pete Cowen, where things went wrong.
Eamon Lynch
“Between us, we’ve confused his mind trying to get him back to the level he was at in 2016, searching too much for perfection instead of sticking to the basic stuff,” Cowen said. “I blame myself as much as anybody. The coach has to take the blame when that happens. It could be mental as well. He’s thinking about how to swing it when he’s hitting the shot, which is a recipe for disaster.”
It wasn’t always thus. In 2013, Stenson famously won a European Tour event in Dubai while hitting 69 of 72 greens, which Cowen describes as “PlayStation golf.” The veteran coach said that is the virtually unattainable standard to which Stenson defaults as his performance goal.
“Searching for perfection is the nature of the beast. He wants to be perfect,” said Cowen, who has coached the six-time PGA Tour winner for 20 years. “He can’t accept a three-yard draw, can’t accept it at all. He’s like, ‘No no no! It’s got draw on it.’”
“He always perceived himself as someone who hits it dead straight. ‘I don’t have this left in me when I’m playing my best!’ He did, but he didn’t think he did.”
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Thursday’s 85 was about as far from perfection as it seems possible for an elite golfer to get. He lost 5.8 strokes to the field off the tee, ranking worst in the field. He lost 8.8 strokes tee to green, also DFL. He found only 5 fairways and 8 greens. He lost two strokes against the field both approaching and around the greens, was 3 of 10 scrambling, and shed another 2.4 strokes putting. His was the rare example of a major winner’s scorecard that offered not a single glimmer of light, no hope on which to build tomorrow.
Since leaving the canceled Players Championship a year ago, Stenson has made 14 starts around the world, producing eight missed cuts, one WD, and no finish higher than T21. TPC Sawgrass is not a venue where a man with that record is likely to discover his game. It’s death by paper cuts, where doubt and fear is inculcated on almost every shot, where confidence is constantly eroded, where hardened competitors feel a trickle of cold sweat at the very moment they need icy calm.
I asked Cowen how far Stenson’s game is from where the former world No. 1 wants it to be. “Miles away,” he shot back. “Miles away from where he wants to be in his own mind.”
Is he that far away in your mind?
“No.”
Why?
“Because he’s a golfer.”
As Cowen spoke, the golfer — a man who effortlessly shot 63 to outduel Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon less than five years ago — strode onto the range, ready to grind anew.
On Friday at 12:38 p.m. he will go to the 10th tee — the scene of one of his Thursday birdies — and try again, hoping to find some truth in the old cliche that things can only get better.
Have a laugh on this Monday courtesy of the European Tour’s latest video, “Angry Golfers.”
Tyrrell Hatton has been on a great run the last year.
The 29-year-old Englishman has won three times since hoisting the trophy at March’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, most-recently claiming last weekend’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and October’s BMW PGA Championship.
Maybe Hatton is just riding the momentum of re-signing his equipment deal with Ping. Or maybe he’s finally getting help.
Hatton, who jumped from No. 9 to No. 5 in the latest world golf ranking, admittedly wears his heart on his sleeve, which has produced some hilarious on-course moments over the years, like his club toss in disgust at the CJ Cup and when he used his putter as a rifle to shoot at – then give the finger to – a pond.
In a hilarious video posted by the European Tour last week, Hatton admitted to being an “angry golfer.”
In the video, Tommy Fleetwood hosts a group therapy session for some of the angriest golfers on the European Tour, featuring Hatton, Eddie Pepperell, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter. Each player has a little fun made at their expense, with Hatton taking the most shots. Two-time major champion Martin Kaymer even makes an appearance.
Next time you’re on the course, just remember: “When you’re feeling glum, pop up your thumb.” It worked for Hatton.
Henrik Stenson had some fun at the expense of his European Ryder Cup teammate, Ian Poulter.
Henrik Stenson enjoyed a long laugh at the expense of European Tour golfer Ian Poulter.
During the DP World Tour Championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, Stenson stole Poulter’s car keys. So when Poulter went to leave the parking lot, he was fuming while struggling to find them. Stenson, meanwhile, filmed Poulter’s frustrations — with some color commentary.
“He’s looking. We all know the feeling. He’s going to be looking for a while. Of course, he’s going to be upset with me, that’s the whole point!” he said on the video he posted to Twitter on Sunday.
Poulter finally realized he’d been pranked when Stenson texted a selfie with the keys in his mouth. That led to some colorful language. Here’s a look.
It was a rough week for Poulter, who finished 31st in the Race to Dubai standings. Stenson was 147th. Lee Westwood won the Race to Dubai while Matthew Fitzpatrick won the season-finale, the DP World Tour Championship.
Henrik Stenson enjoyed a long laugh at the expense of European Tour golfer Ian Poulter.
During the DP World Tour Championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, Stenson stole Poulter’s car keys. So when Poulter went to leave the parking lot, he was fuming while struggling to find them. Stenson, meanwhile, filmed Poulter’s frustrations — with some color commentary.
“He’s looking. We all know the feeling. He’s going to be looking for a while. Of course, he’s going to be upset with me, that’s the whole point!” he said on the video he posted to Twitter on Sunday.
Poulter finally realized he’d been pranked when Stenson texted a selfie with the keys in his mouth. That led to some colorful language. Here’s a look.
It was a rough week for Poulter, who finished 31st in the Race to Dubai standings. Stenson was 147th. Lee Westwood won the Race to Dubai while Matthew Fitzpatrick won the season-finale, the DP World Tour Championship.
