By Sarah Gwynn, europeantour.com
at Augusta National
World Number Two Henrik Stenson is hoping to celebrate his tenth appearance at the Masters Tournament with a first top ten finish, despite his preparations being hampered by a bout of flu.
The Swede recorded his best performance at Augusta National last year, when he was tied 14th, but his strong early season form – he has had three top-four finishes in the last month – has led to him being earmarked as one of the favourites to win the season’s first Major.
Stenson was forced to withdraw from last week’s event on the US PGA Tour, however, and his practice schedule has been interrupted this week as he recovers from illness.
“I'm getting better, slowly but surely,” said the 39 year old. “It’s never as quick as you hope, but I was pretty much down and out for four days.
“It was better to be sick last week than this week because if it was this week, I wouldn't be here today.
The good thing is expectations are kind of out of the window. I was playing nicely before, but now I'm just happy to be here and to be able to peg it up on Thursday and make the best out of it.
Henrik Stenson
"I'm pretty chilled about it and just going to try my best.
“My game seems to be okay despite the hiccups and preparation and being sick. It's great to be back for my tenth straight Masters appearance, and it's the one Major I’ve not been able to break the top ten in, so that's certainly something we are hoping for.”
Stenson suggested his performances with the flat stick have so far prevented him from contesting at Augusta National, but that his putting has been particularly strong this year after some hard work in the off-season.
“Out of those nine previous appearances, I've never really arrived here feeling like I'm playing really well,” he said. “I’ve never really been on top of my game coming into this week.
“I've had some poor weeks on the greens here, and as we know, it's a very difficult week on the greens. If you're not putting good or better than good, you're going to struggle to have a good finish here. Otherwise it’s a course that should suit my game.
“I feel like I've been putting really solidly the last three tournaments on the PGA Tour and the stats show that, too. I've worked hard on my putting. I've always considered myself a good putter when I've been putting well, but I just haven't been putting well enough on a regular basis. So that's been one of my goals – to try to elevate that and get more decent putting rounds.”
Stenson entertained the gathered media in Georgia with a tale from 1999, when he first set foot on Augusta National’s hallowed fairways.
“Emma (his then girlfriend, now wife) went to South Carolina so I was over here in the springtime working on my game and got a practice round ticket for the Tuesday.
“I saw Olazábal at the pitching green, and he was nipping every ball so perfectly and playing great bunker shots and everything. I said that to someone, I think he's going to have a good week, and he ended up winning.”
