DUBAI // Based upon style and panache as much as anything, the TV-friendly, supersonic approach that Henrik Stenson hit into the final hole of last year’s DP World Tour Championship was voted the shot of the year in an online poll of fans.
A few months later, the Jumeirah Golf Estates put a plaque in the fairway to commemorate the spot from where he struck that memorable shot.
Truth be told, the Swedish star had a huge lead at the time, won by six strokes in the end and, while it was a majestic three-wood, it was eye candy in terms of the final outcome.
By comparison, the 195-yard shot he hit on the 71st hole yesterday – sure to be overlooked in terms of aesthetics, but not for sheer impact – was infinitely more important and far more timely.
Locked in a three-way tie for the lead with world No 1 Rory McIlroy and No 7 Justin Rose, Stenson seized control by knocking a five-iron to within a foot of the penultimate flag to secure the European Tour season finale for the second year in succession, winning by two shots at 16 under.
This time, the plot points were still plentiful when Stenson laid claim to a title that nobody seemed to want, finally sorting out an indescribably wild back nine. Given the gravity of the situation, it had to be better than last year’s defining shot.
“That’s a pretty fair assessment,” Stenson said. “That’s going to come down as the shot that pretty much won the tournament.”
During the craziest back nine in the event’s six-year history, the three top-rated players in the field all made a run at the Race to Dubai’s final event after Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello collapsed down the stretch.
Cabrera-Bello, playing alongside Stenson in the final group, held a one-shot lead with three holes to play, then slapped shots into the water at Nos 16 and 17 to open the door to a frenetic finish.
Rose, who was six shots off the lead with nine holes to play, reeled off three birdies in a row, highlighted by a circus shot through the trees on the 14th, then looked at the scoreboard. Seemingly everybody atop the board was rappelling in rapid fashion.
“To tell you the truth, I was a bit bemused to find out I still had a chance,” Rose said.
Like Rose, McIlroy rallied late and, as he played the 18th, was tied for the lead. His pushed tee shot on the par-5 luckily caromed off a rock and hopped over the hole’s confounding water hazard, but he sliced a three-iron approach into the facing of the greenside grandstand from 216 yards, then was unable to convert a birdie putt from 10 feet.
“It could have been different,” said McIlroy, who was formally crowned the Race to Dubai seasonal champion. “But at the same time, I never expected 14 under to have a remote chance to win. It seemed like nobody was taking it by the scruff of the neck.”
Until Stenson applied the chokehold on the 17th.
On the tricky par-3, which features an island green, his tee shot kicked off the back slope of a greenside bunker and trickled to within a foot of the hole. Cabrera-Bello’s shot, conversely, landed five feet farther left and bounced into the water.
The birdie gave Stenson the breathing room necessary to play the 18th conservatively and a closing birdie secured his first title in a season filled with maddening near misses.
With his Race to Dubai seasonal bonus and first-place cheque, he pocketed US$2.13 million (Dh7.8m), moved back to world No 2 and became the first player to twice win the DP World title, as well as the first in event history to defend.
Stenson, 38, had recorded 12 consecutive rounds in the 60s at Jumeirah – the former Dubai resident signed a well-timed sponsorship deal with the club over the summer – but his closing 70 was just good enough, thanks to the two closing birdies.
Perhaps his defining moment on the 17th will be fondly recalled, too, because in the final analysis, it was far more crucial to the outcome than the blow of 12 months earlier, which was memorialised in bronze in the final fairway.
If not, so be it, Stenson said.
“Hey, I can’t have a plaque on every hole,” he said.
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