MEDINAH,Illinois, 19 August 2006 — Initially it was difficult to tell who had the biggest smile on their face after Henrik Stenson’s second successive round of 68 in the USPGA Championship yesterday; the Swede himself, or Ian Woosnam.
But then it became obvious. Woosnam did. Stenson does not do emotion.
And it is this icy demeanour which will make this walking cliche of his countrymen such an important member of the European team that will line up against the Americans in Co Kildare next month. That and his hot talent, of course.
Both were to the fore in this second round as the steely resolve and that pair of graphite arms of his combined to forge an early advantage when setting an imposing eight-under sighter for the late starters, who included Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the second installation of their shoot-out. But Stenson’s marker was better timed for a more pertinent reason than this.
His Ryder Cup place has not been in question since a start to the season that was as good as anybody’s in the world and better than anyone’s whose surname did not happen to be Woods or Mickelson. But since then the 30-year-old’s form has tailed off so badly that just one top-20 finish has arrived since April.
In golf runs like this, the “S” word is invariably wheeled out by all but the player who keeps his head where his ball often has been — i.e. in the sand. Stenson commendably bucked the trend. “Yes I have been in a slump, there’s no getting away from it,” he admitted. “But I’ve been working hard at getting it back and it’s starting to show a little bit now.” Make that a big bit. This six-birdied, two-bogeyed statement of intent was a classic indication that he is back and was made all the more remarkable by his inability to capitalize on any of the par-fives. When you hit it as far as Stenson does, a par can often be viewed as a bogey on the long holes, although, in fact, his round made little sense yesterday. Bogeying the easyish 15th and 18th, Stenson birdied holes he really had no right to — the ninth and 13th. “I just stuck in there,” he said. “It’s my mental attitude: just keep on fighting.” Indeed, nothing seems to bother Stenson, certainly not the 76-year barren stretch back to Europe’s last win in the USPGA.
With another Swede in Daniel Chopra joining Stenson on the leaderboard at five-under and with so many hopefuls still to go out, Tommy Armor’s historic standing appears as much in threat as it ever has. It is incredible to think that Peter Alliss was not even born when the Scot lifted the Wanamaker Trophy in 1930.
America, of course, have monopolized the fourth major in this period, although it is a gauge of how mystifying the European void has become that their Ryder Cup paranoia is dominating the US agenda this week. Davis Love has appeared on six teams and despite only being on the winning side twice (1993 and 1999) his determination for another shot at the enemy has been obvious in Chicago. Gallantly, the 42-year-old has made noises too loud to be considered ingenuous that he does not wish to put Tom Lehman in the position of having to “waste” one of his two wild-cards on him come the squad announcement on Monday morning.
In truth, though, he has probably already done enough in this final qualifying event to warrant his pick. Ideally, Lehman would like Love in contention right until the very last knockings to ensure he leapfrogs into the automatic top-10, but practically he just wanted the former USPGA champion to prove he still has what it takes after a horrendous year which has brought just one top-10.
