European Tour: Maybank Championship power rankings

Henrik Stenson is clearly the cream of the crop this week. The 41-year-old Swede is the lone top-10 player in the world in the field and is the odds favorite despite this being his first trip to Saujana.

Stenson comes into the week off of two straight top-tens in the United Arab Emirates: a solo eighth in Abu Dhabi and a T6 last week in Dubai. In that span he’s 31-under-par and his last 13 rounds have been under par.

Stenson was sixth on the European Tour last year in greens in regulation and has length that goes beyond his 71st mark in driving distance due to his reliance on his trusty 3-wood. That 3-wood helped him to being third in driving accuracy without sacrificing much distance.

The last time Stenson played for the third week in a row he tied for 17th at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. This week will be his first time playing outside the top ten in the world in the past four and a half years – he was ranked 11th on August 3, 2013. That was the week following his runner-up finish to Phil Mickelson at the Open Championship. Does he have a little more magic in him this week?

It seems like a lock that Stenson will pick up a win for the third year in a row in 2018 and the sixth in seven years. Doing it at the Maybank Championship against a moderate field is a strong candidate.