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DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 30, 2009

Henrik Stenson

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

SCOTT CROCKETT: Henrik, as we say, it's been a long day, but ultimately, a satisfying one with your score today and your position in the tournament. You must be very pleased.
HENRIK STENSON: Absolutely. I mean, we had to get out there early, went up at 5:15 this morning, was here for 6:00, did the normal warmup and then I hung about for another couple of hours while the fog cleared up and went out and played pretty good there.
Really, the only disappointment this morning was having the position on 18. I was 5-under for the round and I had just like a regular 3-wood to the green and yeah, didn't hit it good enough, and it was one of them if I would have ripped it, I'm always over the water. But I'm still sort of trying to get it to the middle of the green and mis-hit it and went in the water and took 6.
So that was a little bit of a disappointment. I felt like I threw a couple away there and didn't give hardly anything away in the afternoon. I mean, it was some good touch around the greens and made some good saves and chip-ins and putts. It was a grinding day, but it was like when I hit bad shots, I recovered well and made some good birdies on the good shots. So it was very well scored round.
SCOTT CROCKETT: It is always difficult in the stop/start sort of thing to keep your momentum going, but score cards like that help, doesn't it.
HENRIK STENSON: Absolutely. I had good chances on 2 and 3 and walked away with pars on those, but a 25-footer down the hill that went straight hard in the back there, would have been a good eight, nine feet by the hole so that stayed in and that was nice.
Then I got three 2s on the scorecard. I hit it 2 1/2 feet on 16, and then made that long putt on 4 and then hit again to three, four feet on 7, so it was nice to pick up three birdies on the par 3s as well.
SCOTT CROCKETT: And lucky way to finish, knocking that one in on the last.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I hit a good 6-iron on 9 and made that one dead centre from seven feet, something like that, eight feet.

Q. The second round, how much of it was inspired by or transpired by the bogey on the last hole, because I saw most of your round, and you never once took any risk at all; you just had your game plan and you stuck to it.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I was hitting n some good tee balls with the 3-wood and then a couple of so-so ones. I don't even think I used a driver in the afternoon round there. So 3-wood-only once again.
I know the course and I know where I wanted to be on most of the holes, so I don't feel I need to hit driver really to get it going only. But, well -- I'm tired, I kind of lost what I started now. One question was a lot to answer, I don't know.

Q. Where was the chip-in?
HENRIK STENSON: The chip-in was on 1. I hit a good shot with a 4-iron but just drifted off to the right and was a so-so lie in the rough and I played a really nice chip again and went straight in.

Q. From about 20 yards?
HENRIK STENSON: No, it was short. It was probably about 12 yards or something, 10 or 12 yards.

Q. I think they were predicting fog it again tomorrow, so would it shoot you 72 holes or 54 if they made the decision?
HENRIK STENSON: I don't know. It doesn't matter. It's beyond my control really. There's been times where I think 54 has been good and we've done 72 and vice-versa I think.
So I'll just come out and play whatever they want me to. Obviously it's not too much fun for the guys that won't finish tonight. I think there's one or two groups maybe that doesn't finish, so that's going to be a pain for those guys to have to come up and wait in the morning to finish.
At least I can, living three minutes away, I'll have a sleep. In it's going to be a pretty good day for me tomorrow and I'm not even sure if I'm going to play anything at all, if there's a fog delay similar to what we had, I don't think I'll even be teeing off at all tomorrow.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Haven't made that decision yet.
HENRIK STENSON: If they are going to have the fog or not. (Laughter).

Q. When you made the move to base yourself here, what was it exactly that attracted you from the snowy wastes?
HENRIK STENSON: I feel like in order to give your golf 100 per cent, I wanted to be somewhere where I feel like if I've got time off, I've got good facilities and good weather, and I kind of felt this or America was the option. And back then in '03, '04, I was only playing on The European Tour basically, and this suited much better.
Also, my coach, Pete Cowen has always had affiliations down here. We used to have winter practice and so on, and if you are going to the Far East for a tournament, it's less time difference, shorter travels. So a number of reasons.

Q. And when did you actually move or buy a place here?
HENRIK STENSON: As I said, I'm tired -- probably '03 I think.

Q. What would be the bigger name back home between you and Robert, and is there a nice, friendly rivalry going that's inspiring both of you?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I didn't feel any bad rivalry when we won the World Cup, that's for sure. Robert is a great guy, and I was just very happy with the World Cup that we kind of bonded during that week and got to know each other a whole lot better.
I don't know, I don't spend that much time back home in Sweden, but I would hope it's me. (Laughing) No, he's had a fantastic year, so he's probably hotter on the list. It's definitely inspiring when your friends and colleagues that are playing well, you think, of course, I want to have a piece of that cake, as well. I want to win some tournaments, too.
It's a very positive thing. I believe that's happened in the past, as well. I had some great seasons and then some of the other guys kind of came out and then stepped up as well. Edfors won three times in '06 and I had a good '06, as well. So we are trying to take them all; the Swedes are taking over.

Q. Where was your ball at the start of play this morning?
HENRIK STENSON: I finished 11 yesterday, so I was on 12 tee box. Miguel was the only smart man, he saved his birdie for this morning.
SCOTT CROCKETT: We're all done; we'll let Henrik go to his bed. Well done and play well tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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