Henrik Stenson ready for 'the ankle bracelet' to come off, play PGA Tour Champions
· Yahoo Sports
SOUTHPORT, England — Has it really been a decade since Henrik Stenson outdueled Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon in one of the great performances in Open Championship history?
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To Stenson, it feels like “9 1/2 at the most,” he cracked. “I mean, time flies, as we know, waits for no one. Sometimes it feels like it certainly was a decade ago. With other things, yeah, you feel like maybe it was a little more recent. At least when you hit a 5-iron to six feet to make it on the last, you probably feel like it wasn't that long ago.”
Stenson did just that on Thursday to close with birdie and shoot 2-under 68 at Royal Birkdale in the first round of the 154th British Open.
“Only one blemish on the card, a bit of a soft and stupid double bogey on 11 with a gap wedge in my hand that normally doesn't feel too good,” said Stenson, who would take four putts at the green. “Other than that, it was pretty good. Hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, which is kind of what the doctor ordered. I think with the benign conditions, they tuck the pins quite close to the edges on a lot of holes.”
Stenson, 50, defected to LIV Golf but was relegated after last season and has been paying his penalty with a one-year suspension from the PGA Tour before he can begin competing on the Champions Tour.
“So, from end of August, they removed my ankle bracelet, and I'll be out of that one-year probation,” he said. “I played the last LIV event 24th of August last year. So I'm kind of reinstated as a member, and I'm free to play PGA Tour sanctioned tournaments from the 25th of August this year.”
This week’s Open is just Stenson’s fourth start in nearly a year, which has lowered his expectations. He played his first senior event, finishing T-47 at the Senior PGA Championship and T-11 at the U.S. Senior Open. On the European Tour, he was T-20 at the Barbados Legends, and is ready to transition to the over-50 circuit.
“I'm playing some Champions events and some bits and pieces on the back end of the schedule. So I'll probably get to 13, 14 tournaments when it's all said and done at this point,” he said. “Could be something in Europe, and there will be one in Asia as well. Even if you're playing a little bit less of a schedule, you've still got to work on those air miles and make sure you're keeping gold status somewhere.”
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Henrik Stenson ready for 'the ankle bracelet' to come off, play PGA Tour Champions