Henrik Stenson holds off field at Hero World Challenge

Henrik Stenson was able to hold off a late charge from Jon Rahm to take home his first win in over two years, at this year’s Hero World Challenge.

It had been a while since Henrik Stenson last won an event on the PGA Tour, with his last one coming at the Wyndham Championship back in 2017. He broke that streak this week by taking home the win at the Hero World Championship with a score of -18.

It was nearly -19, thanks in part to an incredible shot by Henrik Stenson on the par-5 15th hole. From around 250 yards out, Stenson took his 5-wood, and nearly made history.

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1203479555710898177

Can’t be mad about a tap in eagle. Well, you can be upset about it most likely, as an albatross would’ve been incredible. Stenson took the eagle, and it was enough to get him the one stroke victory over Jon Rahm. Rahm sure made it tough on Stenson though, as he kept pace with Stenson, as they each shot 66. Rahm had a great shot of his own on the 15th hole.

That made it three straight days that Rahm had an eagle on the 15th hole. After he made that one, it got him into the conversation of “could he catch Stenson?”, but he wasn’t quite able to get there.

Stenson went into the 18th hole with somewhere around a 50-60 footer, and he needed to two-putt in order to win. He hit a magnificent putt to within a foot or two, and had a tap-in to win the tournament.

For a while, it looked like there were a handful of players that had an opportunity to win the Hero World Challenge. After Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas finished the 11th hole, the leaderboard was quite crowded. Tiger held the lead for a moment after birdieing the hole, but Thomas would make eagle to get to -16.

Thomas would bogey 13, and double bogey 18 to finish at -13 T-5th with Justin Rose.

Tiger, like his playing partner Justin Thomas, would struggle the rest of the way as well. He started missing fairways, finding the sandy rough that lined the fairways. He also found himself in a greenside bunker on the par-4 14th. He hit a horrible shot, blasting the ball past the hole, and rolling it off the green.

Another bad shot would follow. Tiger would try and bump-n-run the ball up the hill and onto the green. He failed to hit it hard enough, as the ball ended up back at the bottom of the hill. He would then try again, and although he succeeded, had a long bogey putt left. Luckily for Tiger, he would make the putt and come away with only a bogey.

Stenson had a similar bump-n-run failure in his round as well, albeit on a different hole. His happened on the par-5 11th that Thomas and Woods found green numbers on. Stenson found himself off of the green, and tried to bump his ball through the rough and onto the green. Like Tiger, he didn’t put enough on it, and ended up in a bunker.

He would then hit a poor bunker shot, leaving a long par putt. As you often see from the players that end up winning, nothing could stop Stenson, and he drained the long putt for par.

Although Tiger wasn’t able to win, he still had a good week that should portend well for Tiger with the Presidents Cup coming up next week. He would finish at -14, good enough for 4th place.

The final round had an opportunity to be much more interesting, as Patrick Reed finished two shots back at -16. If you remember, he was penalized two shots during the third round, as we dove into yesterday. If not for that, he may have been tied with Henrik Stenson come the end of the 4th round at the Hero World Challenge.

Alas, that didn’t happen, and Reed ended up in 3rd place. We will see many of these golfers again next week, as the Presidents Cup is next on the schedule. Stay tuned at Pro Golf Now for news and analysis as the event progresses.