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ABU DHABI HSBC CHAMPIONSHIP

January 20, 2017

Henrik Stenson

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Q. How does it feel today after a 71?
HENRIK STENSON: I think game-wise, it wasn't too bad. I felt at times I was hitting it better today. A couple of soft bogeys in the middle of the round. I felt a little slow all day. I think I had my best night's sleep, nine hours straight, and felt the worst I've been all week. Just a day, not too much going for me, but no catastrophes early. So we're still at the races.

Q. So you'll have a couple late movies tonight and sort of force that lack of sleep?
HENRIK STENSON: I think I will sleep again. Shouldn't be a problem.

Q. You have a chance, if you win this week, to have a clean sweep of the desert, career clean sweep, Desert Slam, if you like. What would it mean to you to do that?
HENRIK STENSON: That would be nice. I came out here with pretty low expectations on my game but I got off to a fiery, really hot start yesterday. Yeah, I'm still in good position. Try my best for the weekend. Try and finish that off.

Q. So you go to bed tonight dreaming of a hot start on Saturday?
HENRIK STENSON: Why not?

Q. How did you feel about this round, only 1-under par, but definitely keeps you in the mix.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I'm still at the races. To be fair, I actually felt better with my long game today. I might not have taken advantage of it, and it was a tricky day for sure. In the afternoon, the wind was up more, I think today in the afternoon than it was yesterday. A couple of tough pins, and without taking silly risks on a few of them, it's hard to get tight.

All in all, I wasn't too disappointed. Felt a little slow all day. I slept a good nine hours, the best I've done for the last five or six days, and woke up feeling dead this morning. I guess that kind of showed in the middle of the round. Not too much energy there.

But all in all, not too much to complain about, and just go out there and play a good, solid weekend.

Q. Is it hard to get up after the year that you had, after traveling twice in airplanes, including to your home country, how did you get up for this event? Does that score yesterday help you or is it just experience?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, absolutely. I got off to a hot start yesterday without feeling like I played my best, and I certainly didn't have high expectations of my game. I'm pleased and I'm working away, and it's just the beginning of a new, long season.

So I take it one day at a time and try and do the right things. If you do that long term, the results will come. Like I said, I'm in good position. We're only halfway through, and we're two or three shots back, and a lot of things can happen over the weekend.

Q. Frustrating day today after yesterday?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, but I still felt like I had some good swings out there and hit some good shots. I just didn't get that close and couldn't really get the momentum going on those 20-footers on the greens. I wouldn't say that I'm too disappointed with the way I played.

But I had a bit of a slow stretch in the middle there and made bogey, bogey, on 10 and 11 and that's two good shots thrown away. Without those, it wouldn't have been a disaster by any means, and we're still at the races. One weekend ahead and we can still have a very good finish.

Q. That said, nice way to finish, wasn't it.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I hit a nice little pitch and got up-and-down on 18. It was just too many pars all over, with of course those two bogeys on 10, 11. I didn't take full advantage of a few of the birdie chances I had, and I did that yesterday. All in all, I guess we're pretty much where we deserve to be after two rounds.

Q. Only 1-under but you're still well in contention, three behind Martin.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, even though he's a dangerous player around here, I think off the tee, this course has a lot of doglegs and especially for someone who fades the ball a little bit like Martin does, I think it sets up beautifully for him. He's shown that in the past with three wins here. I'm sure he's hungry to make it a fourth one.

Q. How are you feeling now after the busy start to the week you had?
HENRIK STENSON: I had a great night's sleep, nine hours and I woke up feeling completely dead. It was one of them, kind of wrong-way-around things. Yeah, I'm a little tired today. Jet-lag and sleeping on airplane and so on is not going to make you feel any fresher, but I should be up for it over the weekend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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