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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK HOSPITALS CLASSIC

October 21, 2011

Henrik Stenson

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Like to welcome Henrik Stenson, who shoot his career-low round on the PGA Tour today, an 8-under par, 64 on the Palm Course. Congratulations on that. You're in a three-way tie for the lead after 36 holes at the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic.
Few general thoughts about your round overall, and we'll two through it and then talk about your year.
HENRIK STENSON: That should be pretty quick. (Laughter.) Well, I guess I would still rate the 66 at Sawgrass a little bit higher than this 64, but I'm very pleased with that score obviously. Like I said, I didn't think of that, that's it's the lowest one I've had over here.
I kept the ball in play and took my chances when I had them. Made a couple good up and downs. Hit a couple really good shots. Stayed out of trouble most of the day. I got lucky here on the last. I hit a bit of a slinging left off the tee and managed to stay out of the hazard and got it just short of the green with a flying 9-iron. Made a good two-putt there, so it was looking very close, like a bogey or something like that on the last.
But good day, and in good shape obviously.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Your first appearance in the event. Your overall impression of both the Palm and Magnolia courses.
HENRIK STENSON: It's been a good, fun two days. I've played with Rocco. We kind of decided to team up there, and we've had a blast. He's good fun to play with.
And playing the courses, well, I guess, you know, obviously being resort courses I possibly expected Magnolia to be a little bit easier than it was yesterday. We had a bit of a wind, and I think there are like two par-3s and then like three par-4s that are really long. They're like major championship distances on some a few of those par-4s, especially with the course place soft.
So there are a lot of birdie opportunities out there, but still some really tricky holes. The Palm Course is obviously a little bit more generous.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: You want to go through today's round. You birdied four of the first eight.
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, just made an up and down on the 1st for birdie.
Then made a nice putt on 5. I was in the rough and played it up safe down the green and probably rolled it in from about 25 feet.
And then up and downed the 7th from -- two-putt from the fringe basically.
Then on the next, I made another good putt about 20, 25 feet good.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: What did you hit in there?
HENRIK STENSON: Hit a 5-iron on 8.
And then literally got caught out on the wind on 10 and kind of missed the green and popped it with wedge against the collar and hit the pin really hard. That was a bit of a lucky break.
Then on the next, Rocco 3-putts from, I don't know, 20 feet, and then I do the same. I got a 20-footer for eagle up the hill and I managed to three putt. That was a bit of a give-away.
Then made a long bomb on 14, so it was a little bit of ups and downs out there really. Maybe not as tidy as this course kind of looks at times.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Give us details on the eagle. What do you hit in and how long was the putt?
HENRIK STENSON: I hit a 3-wood off the tee and then a 5-wood from about 260, I think. It was a good 35 feet, something like that.
I guess the best shot of the day was a solid 6-iron into the wind on 16 to about three feet. That was probably the highlight shot.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: We'll just go to questions. Please wait for the microphone if you could. Oh, talk about your year to this point.
HENRIK STENSON: Well, it hasn't been good. I've been battling most of the year. Well, I just made some progress last couple of months, more than anything in my approach I think to the game. I'm still not happy with the way I hit it. There are a couple of funny shots here and there.
But I'm working on the stuff that I really can control, picking my targets and all of the stuff that you guys think of as boring outside the scoring, you know.
So that's what I've been trying to do, and it's obviously helped me.

Q. Did you feel you were on the verge of a day like this? And also, talk about where your confidence is.
HENRIK STENSON: Well, I mean, the confidence is growing, but I'm -- well, did I expect? I mean, I guess we always hope for days like these. I just tried to focus on some other things rather than just my technique and the scores. That's obviously paying off this week.
In the last couple of weeks I feel like I've made some progress there. I'm still not hitting the ball the way I want to. There are still some shots here and there that are more than what I want them to be sort of.
But, yeah, I'm just going to do the same for the next two days, and we'll see where it takes us.

Q. Is it fair to say you had to add these last two tournaments to get to 15 because you didn't get into the FedEx, which is probably what you had intended at the beginning of the year? True?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I mean, I obviously I hoped to make it into the FedEx, and then, yeah, I'm not sure what my schedule would have looked like.
But given that, I was going to make another tour over and play a few more. It's obviously great to play a home tournament. I'm staying half an hour away here from Disney at our home in Lake Nona. When you guys are finished, I'm going to go home and eat some nice sushi and relax with the kids.

Q. Very Swedish.
HENRIK STENSON: We had meatballs the other day.

Q. Henrik, doing the back and forth all year doing two tours, do you try to schedule a bunch here and a bunch there?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I mean, in order to try and make the traveling schedule a little bit easier, I start out the year with a Middle East swing. Play those, and then come over here around match play time and play up until U.S. Open, more or less, only in America Open.
Then back to Sweden and Europe over the summer to both see family and friends and play some events over there. Then this year got a little bit different because I didn't make it into PGA in Akron, which I have been playing the last five years or something like that.
So made it a little bit longer in Europe. I played one or two events over there that I normally haven't played, and then came back for these ones. So, you know, actually hasn't been that much going back and forth due to me knowing that I didn't get in the ones in early August and the FedEx.
But it's been okay. I haven't played to the standard that I would like to, but it's never too late. Hopefully build on these first two days and finish off the year with a good tournament.

Q. How much time did you spend at the home in Nona this year?
HENRIK STENSON: It was, like I said, between the match play and U.S. Open. I'm not sure if I went -- no, I didn't go back to Europe or anything during that time. So, yeah, like four or five months end of the spring.

Q. Any changes for next year schedule-wise?
HENRIK STENSON: I'm just going to possibly play a little bit more early on over year here, play a few more tournaments when I get there from early March onwards. Kind of looks the same.
We're going to base ourselves here full time in March, February. So school and that kind of stuff comes into play as well.

Q. How old is your oldest?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, she turned four in July, so she'll be five next summer.

Q. (No microphone.)
HENRIK STENSON: I saw him in Madrid. Yeah, we got some work done. But like I said, I'm still not where I want to be with the technique. But instead of trying to search too much in that department, I'm trying to make sure that I do the other stuff right.
So once the technique falls into its place, it's not so much work to do on the mental approach and the routines and all those kind of things.
So I've been, you know, getting myself a bit confused at times, which is easily done when you're Swedish.

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