Sal Johnson

A new European Star?

Accenture Match Play recap

By SAL JOHNSON
Publisher, GOLFOBSERVER

Photo: © Reuters/WireImage Henrik Stenson as he wrapped up his win at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

A new star is born.

We hear this phrase a lot when a player wins a tournament, especially a championship like the Accenture Match Play Championship. Of course there have been players like Jeff Maggert and Kevin Sutherland who have won this championship and never go on to star status, but I have a funny feeling that maybe that won't be be the case with Stenson.

A 30-year-old Swede that lives in Sharjah, which is near Dubai, Stenson has been showing us a lot over the course of the last year, winning twice last year, playing on the Ryder Cup team and then last month beating a world class field including Tiger Woods and Ernie Els to win in Dubai. In some European circles he is know as the "Wee-Ice Man", a reference that was given to Ben Hogan 55 years ago.

The reason for the name is the characteristics that Stenson has shown in not only his superb ball striking but his manner in not letting a lot bother him. In a way he has shown us a lot of the same characteristics that made Ben Hogan the great player he was. Matter of fact if you compare both Hogan and Stenson you can see that they had driving problems when they both came out on tour, both worked hard to overcome those problems and become near perfect from tee to green.

Geoff Ogilvy's path to the finals
Match	Result	Holes	Greens Hit	Fairways Hit	Putts	Birdies	Holes Won	Holes Lost
1. Steve Stricker	4 & 3	15	13 of 15 (86.4%)	6 of 12 (50.0%)	21	6	5	1
2. Jose Maria Olazabal	2 & 1	17	13 of 17 (76.5%)	9 of 13 (69.2%)	24	8	7	5
3. Niclas Fasth	2 & 1	17	10 of 17 (58.8%)	5 of 13 (38.5%)	29	4	5	3
QT. Paul Casey	5 & 4	14	11 of 14 (78.6%)	7 of 11 (63.6%)	19	6	7	2
SF. Chad Campbell	3 & 2	16	13 of 16 (81.3%)	8 of 12 (66.7%)	23	7	4	1

When Stenson first came out on the European Tour in 2001 he won at the Belfry, but the celebration was short-lived as Stenson struggled with the driver. Things got so bad that in 2002 he considered giving up the game. Fortunately he got together with European swing coach Peter Cowen and they worked on revamping his swing. Then Stenson started working with psychologist Tortsten Hansson, who helped clear out his mind and showed him how to put good thoughts together. The final touch on his revamping came after last year's Masters when he hired fellow Swede Fanny Sunesson to caddie for him. Sunesson, who was a major part to the reason that Nick Faldo won four of his six majors, has been very instrumental in keeping Stenson calm and giving him the right direction on the course. With the trio, Stenson has become a world class player and since the summer has now made a splash onto the world golfing scene.

In the last year, Stenson took his game to a new level first by winning the CommercialBank Qatar Masters earlier last year, then won the BMW International. He then made a successful debut in the Ryder Cup at the K Club, which just happened to be the same place that five year's previously he thought about quitting golf. At the Ryder Cup he secured the winning point with a 4 & 3 win over Vaughn Taylor. After getting married on December 30th, Stenson won in Dubai and people knew that it was only a matter of time before he would win on the world stage, it just came a bit sooner than some thought.

Henrik Stenson's path to the finals
Match	Result	Holes	Greens Hit	Fairways Hit	Putts	Birdies	Holes Won	Holes Lost
1. Zach Johnson	1 up	18	15 of 18 (83.3%)	8 of 14 (57.1%)	33	5	4	3
2. K.J. Choi	2 up	18	18 of 18 (100%)	9 of 14 (64.3%)	33	7	5	3
3. Aaron Baddeley	4 & 3	15	15 of 15 (86.7%)	9 of 12 (75.0%)	27	3	5	1
QT. Nick O'Hern	1 up	18	15 of 18 (83.3%)	8 of 14 (57.1%)	30	5	7	6
SF. Trevor Immelman	3 & 2	16	15 of 16 (93.8%)	8 of 12 (66.7%)	27	6	5	2

Over the course of 120 holes this week, Stenson hit 85.8% of the greens on his way to winning the Accenture Match Play Championship. In his win against Geoff Ogilvy, Stenson hit 27 of 35 greens and his superb ball striking was a key to winning the match. Stenson also had a stroke of good luck when Ogilvy three-putted, four times and missed 6 putts in the 4 to 8 foot range, but what Stenson showed on Sunday was that "Ice Man" mentality in overcoming difficulties on the front nine in the afternoon 18 to win the match. As an example, how many would go to lunch with a 2 up lead after the morning 18 and then shot four over on his front nine and still win his match? Stenson did.

Of course over the course of a 36 hole match there are a lot of key moments that change the flow of a match points, for Stenson that point probably came on the 27th green. He was 2 down and up against the ropes, when Ogilvy three-putted, missing a short four footer. Then on the next hole, again up against the ropes, Stenson got it up and now from a dry creek bed from a impossible lie for a birdie to get a halve. After that, Ogilvy made some poor shots that he wasn't able to make par from and after Stenson birdied the 12th hole he took a firm grasp of the lead and held of to win the match 2 & 1.

With the victory it now tells the world what everyone on the European Tour knows, that Stenson is probably the best player in Europe right now and he will be on top of the list for possible players to finally break the European Tour's major-less drought that has lingered since the British Open in 1999

Stenson became a member of the PGA Tour after last year and played in his first PGA Tour event as a full member and plans on playing 15 events in the states. As for the loser, Geoff Ogilvy the loss was very frustrating as he was on the cusp of winning his 12th straight match and to be only the second player behind Tiger to win back to back Accenture's. The last time he lost in match play before that was in the 2005 HSBC World Match Play in Wentworth when Michael Campbell beat him 1 up in the first round.

Some Stenson notes:

• Stenson becomes the third first time PGA Tour winner of the Accenture, the others were Darren Clarke in 2000 and Kevin Sutherland in 2002.
• Jumps to No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, highest position of career and the highest position by a Swede.
• He becomes the fourth Swedish golfer to win on the PGA Tour joing Jesper Parnevik, Carl Pettersson and Gabriel Hjertstedt.
• Through six matches, including a 36-hole, final Henrik Stenson trailed during only 44 of his 120 holes.

Final Match hole stat comparison
Match	Holes	Fairways Hit	Greens Hit	Putts	Scrambling	Birdies	Holes Won	Holes Lost
Henrik Stenson	35	16 of 27	27 of 35	58	4 of 8	8	11	9
Geoff Ogilvy	35	20 of 27	25 of 35	60	6 of 10	6	9	11

Sunday morning final Scorecard
Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	5	4	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	4	3	5	4
	1up	2up	1up	AS						AS	AS	1up	1up	1up	2up	2up	2up	2up
Stenson	3	C	4	4	-	4	3	3	4	4	5	3	5	3	3	3	5	4
Ogilvy	5	-	3	3	C	3	4	3	4	5	5	4	5	3	4	3	5	4
				AS	1up	2up	1up	1up	1up	AS	AS

Sunday afternoon final Scorecard
Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	5	4	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	4	3	5	4
	1up	AS	1up	1up	AS	AS					AS	1up	1up	1up	1up	1up	2up
Stenson	5	5	3	4	6	5	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	4	2	4
Ogilvy	4	4	4	4	5	5	3	3	5	4	5	4	4	3	4	3	4
		AS			AS	AS	1up	2up	1up	1up	AS

Tiger News

With Nick O'Hern beating Tiger in the third round he is the only player to ever beat Tiger twice in a match play round including the Accenture, HSBC, Ryder Cup, President Cup, U.S. Amateur and Junior Amateur. Here is a chart on players that Tiger lost to in match play in his career, the list if very, very short considering that he played in:

Accenture record 25 wins - 6 losses
Losses -
Jeff Maggert Quaterfinals 1999
Darren Clarke finals 2000
Peter O'Malley 1st round 2002
Nick O'Hern 2nd round 2005
Chip Campbell, 3rd round 2006
Nick O'Hern, 3rd round 2007

Ryder Cup singles 2 wins - 1 loss - 1 halve
Lost to Costantino Rocca in 1997
Halve was with Jesper Parnevik in 2002

Presidents Cup singles 3 wins - 1 lose
Retief Goosen in 2005

HSBC World Match Play Championship 2 wins - 2 losses
Lost to Mark O'Meara in the finals 1 down in 1998
Lost to Shaun Micheel in first round, 2006

1998 & '99 PGA Grand Slam of Golf 4 wins - 0 loss

U.S. Amateur 20 wins - 2 losses
Lost second round 1992 to Tim Herron 6 & 4
Lost second round 1993 to Paul Page 3 & 2

U.S. Junior 21 wins - 1 loss
Lost to Dennis Hillman in the 1990 Semifinals, 3 & 2

1995 Walker Cup singles 1 wins - 1 loss
Lost to Gary Wolstenholme in the first day