Henrik Stenson’s rocky road to Open validation

It might not have been rock bottom for Henrik Stenson as he packed his bags on a January Friday night and slunk out of the 2012 Qatar Masters after another missed cut but the Swede had every reason to feel low.

It had been his second early elimination in as many weeks at the start of that year’s campaign and the result sent him down to 230th in the world rankings.

He had sunk lower, much lower, during a previous slump in his career that saw him bottom out at 621st midway through 2003.