There was the ‘Duel in the Sun’ and the ‘Duel of the Sons’, and Henrik Stenson was the star of the show in the latter when he outgunned Phil Mickelson on an epic final day at Royal Troon a decade ago.
The weather that day didn’t quite match up to the 1977 finale at nearby Turnberry when it was Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus who were the stars of the show with Watson winning by one, but though Stenson hasn’t played much competitive golf in the last year ro so, the Swede very much enjoyed his day in the sun in the opening round at Royal Birkdale.
A two-under 68 saw him take an early position on page one of the leaderboard, and he admitted that he’d been feeling good even though he’s only played competitively three times in the last 11 months.
“[My] game feels all right. It feels okay,” he said. “There was really only one blemish on the card, a bit of a soft and stupid double bogey on 11 with a gap wedge in my hand that normally doesn’t feel too good.
“Other than that, it was pretty good. Hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, which is kind of what the doctor ordered. I think with the benign conditions, they tuck the pins quite close to the edges on a lot of holes.
“We kept on grinding. Like sometimes happens when you keep patient and keep on grinding, I got some rewards towards the end and finished with three birdies in the last four holes. Pleased with that.”
Though the wind wasn’t particularly strong for links golf, only somebody who set a new Open Championship scoring record with wind and rain a constant on the weekend could describe the conditions as “benign.” And his use of the term benign seemed odd to one reporter, who asked if he meant that the golf course was playing slower than anticipated.
“No, just with the wind. It’s perfect weather. The sun’s out if you haven’t… You guys stay in this tent all week?” Stenson joked.
Clearly in jovial mood, the former LIV player continued to joke when he was asked about his eligibility to play in PGA Tour Champions events having turned 50 in April and played on the Legends Tour and in the Senior PGA Championship and U.S. Senior Open.
“Yeah, so from end of August, they remove my ankle bracelet, and I’ll be out of that one-year probation,” he grinned. “I think from — I played the last LIV event 24th of August last year. So I’m kind of reinstated as a member, and I’m free to play PGA Tour sanctioned tournaments from the 25th of August this year.”
With the golf course only likely to get more fiery over the rest of the week, he’s done the first part of the job and gotten off to a good start. More of the same and he’ll be getting plenty more attention from the press and plenty of other chances to wind them up.
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