Henrik Stenson

Henrik Olof Stenson (born 5 April 1976) is a Swedish professional golfer.

At age 12, he had his first golf lesson with local pro Richard Bayliss at Gullbringa Gullbringa Golf & Country Club, in Kungälv, north of Gothenburg in September 1988.

With parents not playing golf at the time, he first tried the game after following a friend to the course.

A natural left-hander, Stenson learned to play golf right-handed.

In 1991, he moved with his parents to Bjärred outside Malmö in southern Sweden and became a member of Barsebäck Golf & Country Club.

He reached a handicap of 5 at age 15, scratch at 18 and played in junior and amateur tournaments in Sweden in his teen years.

At age 18, Stenson first represented Sweden in an international championship, at the 1994 European Boys' Team Championship, his team losing in a tight final against England.

In 1996, he won the Italian Open Amateur Match-play Championship, beating Robert-Jan Derksen, Netherlands, 5 and 3 in the 36-hole final.

In 1998, he played eight tournaments, as an amateur, on the professional Telia Tour, with five top-10 finishes.

At the last tournament, the Telia Grand Prix, he led by two strokes with two holes to go, but finished fourth.

His achievements during 1998 earned him a place in the Swedish team at the 1998 Eisenhower Trophy in Santiago, Chile, were the Swedish team finished 6th and Stenson was the best Swedish player, finishing 14th individually.

Stenson turned professional in late 1998 and two years later topped the money rankings on the second-tier golf tour in Europe, the Challenge Tour.

This victory took Stenson to the top of the European Order of Merit and to fifth in the world rankings, which was also the highest a male Swedish player had ever been ranked, surpassing Jesper Parnevik's previous record of reaching seventh place in May 2000.

He joined the main European Tour in 2001, and that year, he won the Benson & Hedges International Open for his first European Tour victory.

Each year from 2005 to 2008, he finished in the top 10 of the European Tour Order of Merit.

Stenson reached the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2006 and the top 10 in 2007.

Stenson made his Ryder Cup debut in 2006, and after getting a half-point in the foursomes against Stewart Cink and David Toms on the Friday, he holed the winning putt and ensured that Europe won the Ryder Cup for a third consecutive time when he beat Vaughn Taylor 4 & 3 in the Sunday singles.

In February 2007, Stenson became the first Swede to win one of the World Golf Championships when he beat Geoff Ogilvy 2&1 in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

In all, Stenson spent over 100 weeks in the top 10 of the rankings between 2007 and 2010.

Stenson failed to add to his success over the rest of the season and finished in fourth place on the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit.

He played again in 2008 at Valhalla, tallying a win, a loss and a draw in the foursomes.

However he was not as fortunate as two years before, losing the singles on Sunday 3 & 2 to Kenny Perry.

In March 2009 Stenson created a storm in the media after stripping to his underwear and golf glove in order to play a recovery shot from a muddy water hazard at the first round of the WGC-CA Championship.

On 10 May 2009, Stenson won The Players Championship with a dominating final round score of 66 to finish four ahead of Ian Poulter.

The win was his first American stroke play victory.

This win again brought him to fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The following week he moved up to fourth without playing.

Stenson faltered after reaching a career OWGR high.

He struggled during most of the 2011 season, when he made 9 of 15 cuts but had no top-10 finishes.

His world ranking fell to 230 at the beginning of 2012.

On 5 April 2012, Stenson led during the first round of the Masters Tournament with two eagles on the front nine to lead at 6-under-par until the 18th hole.

A two-time European Tour Golfer of the Year (2013 and 2016), he has spent over 300 weeks ranked in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking and his career high world ranking of second is the best by any male Swedish golfer.

In 2013, Stenson won the U.S. PGA Tour's FedEx Cup and the European Tour's Race to Dubai, thus becoming the first player to win both and to win the season finales of both tours.

Stenson was named the 2023 European Ryder Cup captain, but his captaincy was later terminated.

Stenson was born in Gothenburg.

In 2013, a resurgent Stenson had a watershed season, scoring a number of victories and high-place finishes while cementing a reputation as one of golf's best ball-strikers.

In the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield, Stenson finished as the runner-up, three strokes behind Phil Mickelson, with a total of 284 (E) for the tournament.

He is the first male Swedish and first male Nordic major champion, having won the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon with a major championship record score of 264.

His list of wins also includes some of the other most prestigious tournaments around the world; The Players Championship, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, the World Cup, the Tour Championship, the DP World Tour Championship Dubai, the South African Open and the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

He scored a quadruple-bogey on the par-4 18th hole, tying the Masters' record for the highest score ever on that hole.