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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 3, 2016

Henrik Stenson

Humble, Texas

Q. Henrik, well done today. I thought you played a super round of golf. Just one short, one shot short.
HENRIK STENSON: All the credit to Jimmy. He did really well. I mean, it's a tough one to finish off with a par and it's a tough finishing hole, and I thought I just wanted to give myself a good chance for birdie and did that, hit a good putt. Just went the other way a little bit or straightened out. 6-foot out. I didn't want to back it off at all. I played a solid round of golf. Couple shots coming in, I wasn't over the moon with. All in all, I made some really good putts at the right time most of the way around really only good chance on the back-9, only one on 12 hit a bad bunker shot and missed from 6, 7-foot. Other than that, I thought I played a good round as well. We're on the same page there.

Q. I was going to say the putt at 18 because we all thought it was going to break left on you and started and hung out to the right.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah. Coming across a little bit, that hump kind of goes down towards the hole and push it the other way a little bit. I still felt like I played it off the right and hit a good putt. What more can you ask? I'll drop one when I need to another time.

Q. Your thoughts on Augusta and your chances there?
HENRIK STENSON: I just want to build on my form, really. Again, like I said, my ball-striking has been much better this week than previous weeks this year. Happy with that, and two really solid days on the greens yesterday and today first two days not really. That's pretty much why I was a little bit further behind I guess off of it. I'm pleased with the progress and just want to build some confidence. I haven't felt confident with the long game even though I'm hitting a lot of fairways and greens. I want to build on that and feel even better over the ball. If I can do that, I'll have a good week next week.

Q. Forty years old on Tuesday.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah. I was hanging on for par on that monster putt on the last yesterday, but I guess I'm hanging on more to try and keep my youth, right in it's all good. I don't feel a day older than 38. We're in good shape.

Q. Thanks for your time.
Right in the mix in the final round. How did this one all play out for you? Seems like we've had this conversation before.

HENRIK STENSON: I'm happy. I think I played solid last round here. One or two iron shots on the way in I could have played better, but I saved myself when I was in a bit of trouble there on most of them and missed a good chance on 12, really. Maybe could have pushed the momentum forward a bit more. But all in all, I played a good round. Made a lot of good putts and hit some really good shots. It's not like I want to do much different than what I did.

Q. What confidence do you take from here into next week?
HENRIK STENSON: I just want to build on that. So far this year I don't feel like my striking has been that good, but this week was definitely better. The last two days I was really sharp with the short stick and made some really good putts at the right times and some long ones, too. As we know, putting is a crucial part of doing well around Augusta. So far, so good, and just want to try and little bit more confidence and we should be in good shape.

Q. This is now several runner-ups since your last win. Is it getting close to deal with the close calls?
HENRIK STENSON: It's all different. There's been a bit of frustration a couple of times. Like I said in the previous, I feel like a lot of times I put myself in the mix without playing really, really good, which I think is a great statement to my kind of low level of my game. If I can put myself up there in the Top-10 and Top-5 without feeling overly confident and feel like I'm playing great, that shows a lot on my game.

But, yeah, I would like to -- I would like to get a win under my belt now and I feel like I've definitely kind of accumulated up to one. We'll see when it's going to happen sooner or later. I'm not worried about that.

Q. How do you feel about this result as compared to Bay Hill?
HENRIK STENSON: Both at Bay Hill and here I feel like I played better -- played better final round here than I did at Bay Hill. That's for sure. Even though it wasn't a bad performance, I just didn't get it going as much at Bay Hill, but I'm happy with the way I played today. Just got beat by someone who played a shot better and put as much pressure as I could on the leader coming in. Thought I played 18 excellent and he just hit a monster tee ball and managed to make a 4 to win it. All credit to him.

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