Stenson wins as rivals falter

Henrik Stenson landed the biggest victory of his career with a commanding final round at TPC Sawgrass to take The Players Championship today.

The Swede was one of six men, also including world number one Tiger Woods and England’s Ian Poulter, to start the day in a tie for second place at six under par, with overnight leader Alex Cejka of Germany five shots in front of them at 11 under.

Yet as Cejka imploded and Woods faltered in the final group of the day, Stenson played brilliant golf to shoot a six-under round of 66 and become only the third European in the tournament’s 36-year history, following Sandy Lyle in 1987 and Sergio Garcia 12 months ago.

Poulter finished second after a final-round 70 which took him to eight under, his second top-five finish in a row but still short of his first PGA Tour victory, with Americans John Mallinger and Kevin Na third at seven under.

England’s Brian Davis gave the European contingent more cheer as he took a share of fifth place on six under with Americans Jim Furyk and Ben Crane with Woods alone in eighth at five under following a 73, his first top-10 finish in the event since he won it in 2001.

Aaron Baddeley of Australia completed an amazing turnaround following a 76 on Saturday which left him in last place, a final-round 66 giving him a tie for ninth place with Vijay Singh, another former straggler who turned in a 67 and Cejka, who closed with a 79.

Once again temperatures soared to 90 degrees Fahrenheit as the leaders began their rounds, which in the third round had helped the greens quicken considerably, and the leaders were bracing for another testing day in the PGA Tour’s flagship event.

Cejka, wearing all black in the Florida heat, made a bad start from which he could not recover, although the Czech-born German was not the only contender experiencing jitters in golf’s so-called “fifth major”.

Woods hit a bad tee shot at the par-five second hole and found water with his second shot, while up ahead Retief Goosen dropped to five under when he missed a par putt from inside seven feet.

Then Poulter undid his good start with a bogey at the par-four fourth to return to five under and Woods bogeyed the second.

Cejka imploded with a run of double-bogey, bogey, bogey to fall to six under while Woods was also in reverse at four under after eight having bogeyed the fourth, birdied the sixth and bogeyed the seventh.

Goosen strung together back to back birdies only to double bogey the par-four eighth to leave Stenson in the lead at eight under after nine holes after the Swede birdied the seventh and ninth.

Stenson was the only player left in the field still bogey-free in the final round and he stretched his lead to three strokes with birdies at the 11th and 13th to move to 10 under, three shots clear.

Davis had also birdied the 11th to move up to joint second with Poulter and Crane at seven under, while American John Mallinger joined them with a birdie at the 14th.

Goosen joined the party with birdies at the 11th and 12th but Crane dropped a shot at the 13th.

Furyk entered the mix at six under with a birdie at the 16th, his third on the back nine on the way to a final-round 69, while Cejka finally got into a groove with his first birdie of the day at the par-four 10th, where Woods bogeyed to slip to three under, only for the German to bogey the 12th and return to five under.

Both Poulter and Mallinger narrowed the gap on Stenson to two strokes, the Englishman by sinking a birdie putt at the par-four 15th, while the American birdied the 16th.

Mallinger’s playing partner Kevin Na also enjoyed the par-five 16th, which he eagled courtesy of a 51-foot putt.

Mallinger finished with a 70 to close at seven under, as did Na but Stenson was getting better and better.

On Saturday he reached nine under before losing three strokes over the last four holes but on his final trip round the Swede was inspired.

At the 15th he blasted his three wood 302 yards and sent his approach shot to within three feet to hole out for a birdie which took him to 11 under.

Another birdie at the 16th gave Stenson a four-shot cushion and when his tee shot on 17 found dry land, the Swede could finally look forward to the biggest victory of his career with Woods and a forlorn Cejka bringing up the rear as mere footnotes.