Stenson hoping for summer of love

Henrik Stenson was today hoping to end his usual summer slump as he bids to reclaim top spot in the Order of Merit from new Open champion Padraig Harrington.

Stenson had topped the money list since winning the Accenture Match Play title in February until Harrington claimed the £750,000 (€1m) winner’s cheque for his dramatic triumph in a play-off with Sergio Garcia.

The 31-year-old Swede missed the cut at Carnoustie in his first event since his wife Emma gave birth to baby daughter Lisa at the start of the month, and has struggled to reproduce the early-season form which also saw him win the Dubai Desert Classic after finishing eighth and seventh in the previous two weeks.

“The last five or six years the summer has not been the best period for me,” explained the Ryder Cup star. “I don’t know if it is down to allergies – I get hayfever – or too much golf, but I am usually better in the autumn and hopefully I can work it out in the future as three of the majors are in the summer.

“Just looking at my results I have not been better than seventh or eighth in the summer months for the last couple of seasons. Eighth at Wentworth in May (in the BMW Championship) was my best finish for a couple of years.

“I think it must be the allergies as it makes you tired and it is difficult to keep going.”

Harrington is currently £221,079 (€303,076) ahead of Stenson in the battle to be European number one, but a win or second place in the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship which gets under way in Hamburg today would lift Stenson back to the top of the Order of Merit.

“I was delighted for Padraig last week,” Stenson added. “He overtakes me and that is the natural thing. Whoever had won was always going to go past or very close to me, it’s fine.

“I knew I put myself in a good position early on with the win in Dubai and the Match Play but it needed a whole lot more than that to be number one at the end of the year.

“I’m not that far behind Padraig now and just have to get my game in shape to come up with a couple of good weeks to challenge him again. Form does tend to come and go and I have been playing so-so for a couple of months and you feel it is time to get things going again.”