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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

MARANA, Ariz. -- There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Henrik Stenson would stand on the tee and wonder where he was going to hit the ball.

(Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

GET TO KNOW STENSON

A family friend introduced him to the game. His father, Ingemar, started two years later but his 15-year-old sister Ulrika tried it before and decided to stick to horse riding. He got down to scratch at 18 and in 1994 played for Swedish boys. A year later graduated to thenational side and had a successful amateur career by representing Sweden in the 1998 Eisenhower Trophy in Chile.  • Learn more about Henrik • Read about his win • Watch Henrik win

Would it go right this time? Or left, maybe? Heaven forbid, don't let it go in the water. When a man has completely lost his swing, positive thoughts are awfully hard to come by.

"The first couple of provisional balls don't bother you that much," the soft-spoken Stenson recalled with a wry grin Sunday afternoon.

"But after a while when your caddie is rattling in the pocket to see if he's got a provisional when you're standing over the drive, you know you've got some sort of a problem."

The baby-faced Swede certainly did. He was trying to make a living on the European Tour in 2002 with a stroke average of 73.64. He ranked 158th in fairways hit and 170th in greens in regulation. He only made 42,283 pounds sterling that year.

Stenson never came close to quitting, although there were probably those who wondered why he didn't. He hunkered down with his swing coach Peter Cohen and sports psychologist Torsten Hansson, and methodically, as Swedes are want to do, turned his game around.

So how did he do it?

"I probably only heard it a couple thousand times, this question, and I normally don't try and think about what happened five years ago, six years ago," Stenson said politely. "I try more to look into where I am today."

Where Stenson was Sunday was at the top of his profession after winning the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. The 2-and-1 victory against Geoff Ogilvy came in his first tournament as a PGA TOUR member and earned Stenson a three-year exemption.

Stenson also won $1.35 million and picked up 4,725 FedExCup points, although the rookie is probably still learning how valuable those will be in the race for the $10 million bonus at the end of the season. He'll get a chance to earn some more this week at The Honda Classic.

The Swede, who is building a home in Orlando, has also retained his membership on the European Tour and plans to play on both sides of the Atlantic. Sunday's victory, coupled with that win in Dubai three weeks ago where he held off Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, vaulted Stenson to No. 1 in the Order of Merit.

Not to mention, Stenson is now ranked fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking -- which is the highest position ever for a Swedish player not named Annika Sorenstam. Joining the likes of Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott at the top of the ladder, though, leaves Stenson slightly non-plussed.

"Well, I think I've established myself within top 20, and then just recently moved into top 10," he said. "So, I mean, I can't say that I go straight out and say I should be No. 5 or No. 6 in the world, but obviously that's where I am at the moment.

"But I feel like I've established myself as a top-20 player."

His peers might consider that an understatement. A big hitter with a deft touch around the greens, Stenson has already won six times and played on his first Ryder Cup team, where he sank the deciding putt in the European romp at The K Club.

"I can't see any tournament he couldn't win, really," Ogilvy said. "They should be (talking about him). I mean, he suffers from the fact that he plays most of his golf outside the U.S. so people in the U.S. don't talk about what he does.

"But he's been winning tournaments for three or four years. ... So everybody out here knows he's a good player. It's just people outside the golf world need to see that, I guess."

Sunday's hard-fought victory -- which saw Stenson birdie four of his last nine holes to move from 2 down to earn the win on the 35th hole -- left the 30-year-old, in his own words, "exhausted." He came into the interview room, settled into a chair by the blue Waterford Walter Hagen Trophy and jokingly laid his head on the table before answering the first question.

"I don't remember when I was this tired," Stenson said. "I'm too tired to be happy almost."

Don't worry. He and his wife of two months, Emma, will have time to enjoy the victory, which was Stenson's second in as many starts. "Winning a World Golf Championships is as close to winning a major without doing it, I guess," he said. "It's two great tournaments I won just recently."

What's next for the Swede? Well, one of the reasons he wanted to come play in the United States is to better prepare himself for the majors and Sunday was a pretty good start.

"You know, that's the two sort of childhood dreams that I had: Playing in the Ryder Cup and winning the British Open," Stenson said almost shyly.

"If I win any of the other majors I won't return, so any one will do."