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THE 147TH OPEN

July 22, 2018

Henrik Stenson

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. How has the elbow been?
HENRIK STENSON: It's been holding up okay. Not felt great, but it's been playable. Worst day was Friday morning. I think I did a little too much after Thursday's round. I was not happy with the way I played. I spent a good hour plus on the range in the evening. Then the next morning, I kind of said, thanks for doing that yesterday.

So back on the anti-inflammatories, and that calmed me down a little bit again. It's been okay. I'm not 100 percent, but it's been all right. Hopefully this week off will clear out the rest and can feel 100 percent going into Akron.

Q. Did you play just because it was The Open?
HENRIK STENSON: I would say so. If it had been any other tournament, I don't think -- anything other than a major potentially, I don't think I would have teed it off this week.

Q. There's no risk it could have made it worse, is it?
HENRIK STENSON: No, that was the assumption. We weren't going to make it worse. Obviously, the lack of preparation and practise was always going to affect the result to a very high degree this week. So I feel like where I'm at today with the practise and links preparation and everything, that's where I should have been Sunday of the Scottish, and I would have had a whole week of British ahead of me instead of being here and work and playing and prep this week.

But it is what it is. Sometimes those things happen, and you've just got to make the best of it and move on. Yeah, you can all focus on the guys who are playing well this week. Don't need to hear me to chitchat anymore. There are plenty of guys out there playing well, and they'll battle it out for the Claret Jug.

Q. How was the injury caused in the first place?
HENRIK STENSON: Hit the top part of my arm here. Yeah, don't do that.

Q. What did you hit it on?
HENRIK STENSON: Well, a door. I lost.

Q. Wasn't another person?
HENRIK STENSON: No. You would have known (laughter).

Q. I want to ask you, having won Wyndham last year, this puts you in somewhat of a precarious spot at Akron PGA. I assume you're defending at Wyndham, and a Ryder Cup coming up. Seems like a lot.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it is. That's why I'm hoping the arm will clear up in a week or so, and I can get back into playing without thinking about that and just working on my game, and hopefully I can find some form. If I'm going to play all that golf, I need to pace myself and not do too much. But at the same time, I'm not feeling like I'm firing golf-wise, so you still need to put some work in. So that's a bit of a tough one. Not just with the whole FedEx and hopefully the Ryder Cup on the back end of it, it was Sweden moved the date into the same week as Wyndham as well. So we're disappointing a lot of people.

Q. The Swedish is opposite Wyndham this year?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah.

Q. Just turning ahead to next year, tickets are going really well for Portrush. How excited are you about this event now?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it will be good. I never played golf in Northern Ireland, believe it or not. This will be my first time there. I've seen pictures. So excited for next year. This tournament is always special, and I think it's going to be a special one at Portrush.

Q. How important is it that Alex gets right in the mix today?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it's anyone's tournament. At least I said that early on in the week, I felt like scoring was going to be really bunched up due to the course setup this week. It's really hard on a lot of the approach shots. You can't -- I mean, a great shot can be 15, 20 feet away. An average shot is 25, 30 feet away. It's really hard to -- it's not what you'd normally see that an average to poor one is going to be far away and a good one is going to be really close. Everyone tends to end up around the midrange, and it's just down to whoever rolls a few extra putts in, I think.

And given how many players you have in a really tight space there, anyone who gets going, I would definitely say it's a 4 or 5-under par out there, if you're playing well today. Most of the holes are playing either into the wind or downwind, not so much crosswinds, I'd say, in general. So, yeah, anyone who gets going, and depending then on who's struggling and who's not struggling, it could be an interesting afternoon. I think you might see the lead change more than once.

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