Sleep-deprived Stenson off to solid start at Bay Hill
ORLANDO -- His son Karl was born in the nearby Winnie Palmer Hospital a scant three weeks ago so there's more than a little synergy here.
After all, Karl's daddy, Henrik Stenson, is one shot off the lead after the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. The sleep-deprived Swede fired a solid 67 on Thursday to put himself squarely in the hunt at Bay Hill.
"A little bit less sleep, yeah, maybe," Stenson scknowledged with a grin. "But didn't seem to affect me too bad today at least. I'll blame that some other day."
The round of 5 under tied Stenson's lowest of the season, shot in the fourth round of the Abu Dhabi Championship. He's played sparingly this year as he awaited his son's birth, and Bay Hill is just his third PGA TOUR event.
"I feel like I've been struggling a bit with my game throughout the early part of the season," Stenson said. "I was just happy with the way I committed to the shots (Thursday) and made some great saves and made some good putts out there and kept it together pretty good."
At the same time, Stenson didn't get off to the best of starts when he made bogey from a plugged lie in a fairway bunker at the 10th hole. But he two-putted both par 5s on the back from 47 and 32 feet, then added a 4-footer at No. 12 to turn in 34.
Stenson's success on the par 5s continued on the front nine as he got up and down from greenside bunkers for birdies at Nos. 4 and 6. He also made a 12-footer at No. 1 and a 10-footer at the third.
The Swede ended up a stroke behind J.B. Holmes, though, when his approach at the eighth flirted with the lake and he didn't get up and down. Still, he had perhaps his best ball-striking day of the year -- hitting all but one fairway and 12 of 18 greens.
His relatively abbreviated 2010 schedule to date -- Stenson, who has a home in Dubai, played the European Tour's Middle East swing and then the two World Golf Championships on U.S. soil -- has the Swede still searching a tad.
"When it doesn't feel quite right, you line up with the technique and not focusing on the right things," Stenson said. "I think the head was a bit better there. Even though confidence wasn't great, it's still a great day's work out there."
Confidence wasn't a problem a little over 10 months ago at TPC Sawgrass as Stenson fired a 66 in the final round to win THE PLAYERS Championship. The victory was the second of his PGA TOUR career and his 10th worldwide.
Stenson started the final round on Dye's Stadium Course trailing Alex Cejka by five strokes. He didn't miss a fairway or make a bogey as he matched the day's best round and bettered the field scoring average by nearly 7.5 strokes.
"I feel like in terms of being able to win a major championship, which I hopefully will do one day, it kind of gave me the confidence that when I play well and deliver such a good round on the Sunday at THE PLAYERS, I feel like I should be able to do that at a major championship, as well," Stenson said.
"So it's a nice confidence boost to know that I beat sort of the strongest field of the year on a Sunday."
Stenson has a habit of rising to the occasion at the big events. His first PGA TOUR victory came in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, and he's had four top-10s in his last six majors.
The Masters is less than two weeks away, though, and Stenson has not finished higher than 17th in four starts at Augusta National. So he'd like nothing better than to walk away from Bay Hill with more trust in his game, and a victory would be a bonus.
"Obviously if you're up there in contention on Sunday, you always want to win," Stenson said. "But yeah, I want to get a little bit more confidence in my game and have a good week's practice next week and be ready for Augusta."
Regardless of what happens, though, Stenson will have helped the Arnold Palmer Invitational raise some more charity dollars to help fulfill the medical needs of women and children in the Orlando area. He'll head to his Orlando home happy to see his growing family, too.
"It's obviously a very pleasant time," Stenson said. "It's a change going from three to four in the family, and I know how much excitement and joy we have had with Lisa over these 2 1/2 years, so having another one is great.
"And now in the future I can get two hugs after a bogey instead of one."
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