Stenson plans to become a major player

TOUR NEWS:ONWARD AND upward, Henrik Stenson's rise to fifth in the official world rankings after his win in The Players Championship on Sunday has reaffirmed the Swede's belief that the next step in his progression is to capture a major championship.

Indeed, the 33-year-old has already taken one leaf out of Padraig Harrington’s book in attempting to emulate the Irishman’s major-winning feats: he has taken Dr Bob Rotella on board as his sports psychologist.

Stenson broke from his long-time mind guru Torsten Hansson almost 12 months ago, and teamed-up with Rotella after a poor performance in the Accenture World Matchplay in February.

“I contacted Bob to have somebody to chat to about different things and get some tips on focusing on the right stuff. He’s worked with Pádraig, and also he was doing some seminars at the college where Emma (Stenson’s wife) used to go to school . . . I’ve done a lot of stuff with Torsten over the years, and some of it is still going to be the same, just in a slightly different packaging. It’s a lot of common sense, I guess.”

Up to last season, Stenson had never managed a top-10 in a major. But he broke that sequence in a big way, finishing third behind Harrington in the British Open and then fourth behind the Dubliner in the US PGA.

“I felt in the past it was a little bit annoying not to have a top-10 in a major and so on, and I definitely got to put an end to that question.

“It’s all about putting yourself in position (to win). With the experience (in The Players), I know even better that I can pull it off when it matters.”

Stenson, who hasn’t taken up his US Tour membership, preferring to base himself on the European Tour, has a week off (holidaying in the Bahamas) before resuming tournament play at next week’s BMW PGA championship at Wentworth and the following week’s European Open at the London club.

After that, he will build up for next month’s US Open at Bethpage by playing in the St Jude Classic in Memphis.

When he won the Accenture Matchplay in 2007, Stenson took up his US Tour membership but dropped it last year and didn’t take it up this season.

“It’s scheduling. I’m in the tournaments I want to play, where I want to play them in the world,” he explained.