For someone possessing what have long been perceived as troubles with the biggest club in the bag, this was a driving problem of an altogether kind.
Henrik Stenson, then a Dubai resident, was making his own way from his temporary stay at Emirates Palace for the first round at the 2007 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship when he took a wrong turn.
As he looped back past the airport, a delivery truck in front suddenly veered, forcing a sharp evasive manoeuvre from the Swede, which ultimately sent his Porsche 911 spinning into the sand. Luckily, only the car emerged with any scratches.
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“It was my friend, who was caddying for me, more than anything - he had a lorry right here,” Stenson says, raising a hand in front of his face. “But we pushed the car back up on the road and just about made it to the course.”
Arriving 50 minutes before his tee time, Stenson ran to the range, hit a few balls, gobbled a sandwich and promptly went out to shoot a 6-under par 66. He finished that Thursday in a share of second place. Must have been the adrenaline.
“The next day was a nice comfortable ride and I shot 1-under,” Stenson says. “So obviously I need a bit of drama in my life.”
Drama and Abu Dhabi tend to go hand-in-hand. A few years later, Stenson stood on the 16th tee – his seventh hole – in the first round and attempted to cut the corner on the dogleg. His drive found the deep rough, so he hacked out and made his way to the green. Standing over his putt, Stenson quickly realised something was amiss.
“The ball had a little dot on it, or my marking wasn’t on it, and I was like, ‘this is weird’,” he says. “’Hmmm, really weird’.”
Discovering the Srixon was not his own, Stenson called the foul, went back to the rough and found his ball lying close to where he had played the original shot. The discretion meant he incurred a two-stroke penalty.
“Someone had left it there from the pro-am the previous afternoon,” Stenson says. “Same ball, same number. What were the odds of two identical balls lying in the rough five yards away from each other?”
A triple bogey proved doubly costly. Stenson eventually signed for 76, leaving him too much work to do on Friday. For the first time in Abu Dhabi, and at a course where he had twice before finished runner-up, Stenson missed the cut.
Yet, despite the literal bumps and figurative bruises, his commitment to the opening tournament on the European Tour’s Desert Swing has never wavered. Perhaps because, among the more bizarre mental markings, the memory of carding a 62 during the third round in 2006 - still the course record today - remains so vivid that Stenson can recall almost every shot.
“It’s the lowest-recorded round I have in competition,” says Stenson, a professional since 1998. “I hit a 4-iron on 18, over the bunker, pin short right, to about five or six feet and hit to eagle to finish off with a 62. Was a really solid round of golf.”
There have been plenty of really solid showings since. Stenson arrives in Abu Dhabi this week as the world No 2, having triumphed in his last European Tour event – a two-shot victory at November’s DP World Tour Championship, the circuit’s season finale.
Not only was it the first time Stenson had successfully defended a title, but it also provided a reminder of his prowess. Through 2014, those had been fleeting. Following a stunning 2013, in which he won both the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup, Stenson was expected to challenge at the game’s summit and finally add a major championship to an otherwise exemplary CV.
Yet success on the course created increased commitments off it. As a result, Stenson had little time to recover, physically and mentally, from his career year. Consequently, his game suffered. Beginning last season significantly undercooked, Stenson’s 2014 debut quickly burnt out and he missed another cut in Abu Dhabi. In fact, the first half of his season failed to live up to its potential.
“It was going to be a challenge for the 2014 season with a lot of extra things on my plate, especially early doors,” Stenson says. “I was battling fatigue more than anything for the first couple of months. I was just going further south and that’s the hard part when you’re stuck behind the eight ball a little bit.
“The biggest challenge at the tournament venue is if you have a lot of commitments. It gets frustrating, can creep under you skin a little bit. But it’s all part of it. It’s all there for a good reason. I had a fantastic year and if it sounds like I’m complaining I’m not. Well, just a little bit.”
To lighten the load, Stenson has trimmed his 2015 schedule. The 31 tournaments played in 2013 had already given way to 28 last season. This year: 26. The emphasis is on a more structured approach.
It is catch-22, though: better preparation – in theory - leads to better results, which in turn brings more exposure and thus more attention. Interview requests, television time, magazine shoots. The simple answer is learning to occasionally say no. Then again, there is always an alternative solution.
“Private jet,” Stenson jokes. “But I have to be a little bit stronger, a bit harder in that department at times. It’s easy to say I’ll do that in two months, but when it comes, and if you’re running on fumes a little bit, it’s like ‘why did I say yes?’ We all have things like that, both in professional life and in life generally.
“It’s always easier to add than to take away, unfortunately. I’ve told most of my friends I don’t ever want to see them again.”
That might be difficult this week. Popular on tour and with supporters, not to mention a former Dubai resident of almost 10 years, familiar faces are found nearly wherever he goes. Pressing the flesh will be unavoidable these next few days, although Stenson, an ever present as the tournament celebrates its 10th anniversary, should find focusing on task at hand a little easier.
With two DP World Tour Championship titles, a Qatar Masters gong and the Dubai Desert Classic crown, the Falcon trophy represents the only omission from the Middle East set.
“It would be nice to have all four,” he says.
There are other targets, too.
“As a player, you’re never done developing,” Stenson says. “As soon as you sit down and are happy, you’re going to be run past by a bunch of these youngsters.
“And I’m certainly not getting any younger. I’m 38; I look at myself as hopefully having another good five years ahead of me if I can stay healthy and injury free and happy with what I do.
“So majors, big events: that’s where you want to play your best. And there’s a bunch of other tournaments where I would like to get my hands on a trophy. Abu Dhabi is definitely one of them.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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