If hardly anonymous before, Henrik Stenson is now completely familiar with the trappings of sporting fame. Stenson’s wonderful 2013 led to his being named as the European Tour’s golfer of the year, win its money list and claim the lucrative FedEx Cup in the United States. His Ryder Cup place for late September is already assured. In his native Sweden, Stenson was named male athlete of the year.

At the start of 2014, Stenson admits dealing with his new status in itself supplies pressure. “There are two big challenges,” he said. “One is to try and keep the expectations on a level; golf is a game that goes up and down like we know. It’s not that I feel like I have to expect not playing well, but that kind of run I had for the last six months, that’s not going to continue for ever. We know that much.

"The most important thing for me is to keep on focusing on my game which is having its challenges at this time. The demand on my time is five times higher than it was six months ago, so it's a lot of things to look after outside the course, which is going to take a little bit of time and focus away from playing and practising.


'Those two battles'
"We all know what happens when you have to fight those two battles. Normally the level of play takes a little bit of a hit. So that's the biggest challenge as I see it. Just managing my time really well is going to be key to get all things into my calendar."

Stenson has not lost his sense of humour. “Funnily enough, I still need to see my kids every now and again. And the wife,” he said.

Stenson’s time has otherwise been preoccupied with the building of family homes in Sweden and Lake Nona in Florida. “I think that probably makes the golf achievements even bigger,” he said. “If anyone here has built a house, they will know what I am talking about.

"If you are running around looking at tiles rather than making three-footers, then it will normally affect you."

Reward himself
The 37-year-old has not even had an opportunity to reward himself with a present for a year which returned $20m in prize-money.

“I haven’t had time, it has been too busy,” he said. “I will tell you about that when the time comes. It might be something with four wheels. I made some kind of promises to myself way back in the day, so we will see if I keep them.”

Stenson sits at a career-high position of number three in the world rankings. Launching a challenge to Tiger Woods is a legitimate target for the Swede, as is a meaningful shot at winning a major championship. No Swedish male golfer has triumphed in one of the big four events. Stenson has cited putting and bunker play as aspects of his game that he is keen to enhance.

'A lot of areas'
"I still feel like there are a lot of areas I can improve on," Stenson said. "Quite a lot in some areas, a bit less in others perhaps. As we all know, golf is a game where you never get finished. You can always keep on getting better and keep on working. I think that's key; the moment you sit down and you are happy where you are at, normally you start going backwards.

“My focus has to be on my game and doing the right things, and hopefully the results will continue to keep coming our way. If they do, I hope I’ll be in with a chance firstly to get to number two and hopefully get to number one.

“I think that would be a lovely achievement and something to look back on at the end of a career. To say that, at some stage, I was world number one. Whether it will happen or not, that’s written in the future and I can only focus on what I can control. Even if I win three tournaments in the next four weeks, Tiger or Adam Scott might do the same or even better. I can only do my bit and then we’ll see.”

Guardian Service