Henrik Stenson Adds to Career Calendar Year

Already having a career year, Henrik Stenson added another Race to Dubai title to resumé last Sunday.

As if he wasn’t already having a career year, Henrik Stenson added another major piece to list of his accomplishments this year. He has now won his second Race to Dubai title of his career. He also won the R2D in 2013. This year’s title adds to his already jam-packed list of accomplishments this year as it further solidified a career season.

Stenson, a Swedish born player that plays on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour was still without a major championship at the start of this year. However, the 40-year-old made this year count.

In mid July, Stenson got into a shoot out with veteran PGA Tour player Phil Mickelson at the Open Championship at Royal Troon. Mickelson and Stenson blew away the field as they were an incredible 10 strokes ahead of the rest of the field at one point.

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In the end, Stenson was finally able to break through. He used four birdies in the final five holes to out-duel Mickelson for his first major championship title.

Just two weeks later, at the PGA Championship, he was again in contention for another major. He was tied for fifth place after the first round and didn’t relinquish his spot in the top 10 for the rest of the tournament. He was all alone in fifth place after the second round and then moved up into a tie for third place after the third round. Although he struggled in the final round with a one-over 71, he still remained near the top of the leaderboard. He would finish the tournament in a tie for seventh.

However, Stenson didn’t stop there as he was again back in action two weeks after that at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was an historic event for golf as it was the first time the sport was featured in the Olympics after an 112 year absence. In its return, it came down to a final day battle for the gold medal.

The Swedish native Stenson and Great Britain’s Justin Rose battled all the way to the final hole. In the end, Stenson was beaten by Rose but he didn’t go home empty handed. He earned the first silver medal in golf given out in 112 years.

Later on in the season, Stenson could be seen representing his homeland. In the Olympics, he would represent his home country, Sweden, but at the Ryder Cup he was selected to represent team Europe. Although Europe was beaten by the U.S. team, Stenson was able to get a couple of wins for the team. Stenson and Rose paired up for a four-ball match and were able to beat Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed. In addition, he won a singles match on the final day of the Ryder Cup over Jordan Spieth.

Although an injury sidelined him and prevented him from contending in the PGA Tour’s season finale, the FedEx Cup playoffs, Stenson rounded out his year with a win at the European Tour’s season finale.

However, it didn’t come without its challenges. He need to finish ahead of Danny Willett, Alexander Noren, and Rory McIlroy at the final event of the European Tour season, the DP World Championship in order to capture the title. A tough task given the success those three have also been having this year. While Willett and Noren finished behind him, McIlroy finished in a tie with him at ninth place. In the end, it was good enough to secure enough points to win this years Race to Dubai crown.

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After a glittering 2016, can Henrik Stenson possibly go better in 2017? Let us know in the comments below.

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