Stenson sets the pace

Swede Henrik Stenson, whose only performance of note this season was finishing joint third at The Open in July, set the early pace at the Dubai World Championship today.

While Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell waited to begin their head-to-head duel to decide the money list title, Stenson birdied three of his first five holes and remained three under with five holes to play.

The 34-year-old former Ryder Cup star stood fourth in the world after capturing the Players Championship in Florida last year, but is now down at 49th.

He is even lower than that – 52nd – on the ’Race to Dubai’ standings and that explained his early start on the Greg Norman-designed Earth course.

Major winners Kaymer and McDowell are the only two players who can scoop the £932,024 bonus that goes to the European Tour number one.

World number one Lee Westwood, winner of that and the season-ending tournament a year ago, was teeing off in the match ahead along with Italian Francesco Molinari, the player who pipped him at the world championship in China three weeks ago.

Stenson shared top spot with Dutchman Joost Luiten, who birdied the first three holes, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and 19-year-old Korean Noh Seung-yul.

Sergio Garcia, another looking to salvage something from a year that so far has been one to forget, set off with back-to-back birdies, but then returned to level par with bogeys on the eighth and ninth.

The second of those holes saw Australian Marcus Fraser drop from three under to level par with a triple bogey seven.

Stenson was in danger of dropping a second successive shot there after pulling his approach, but he chipped over a bunker to 10 feet, made the par-saving putt and then birdied the 401-yard 11th.

McDowell needs a top three finish to have any chance of overtaking Kaymer, while the German could replace Westwood as world number one with a top two display.

Stenson added another birdie on the long 14th, bogeyed the next two, but hit his tee shot to five feet at the 195-yard 17th.

Making the putt there and just missing another birdie chance on the last meant he finished with a three under par 69, but that was one behind Jaidee and Noh.

“I won The Players on Bermuda grass, but it’s not my favourite surface,” said Stenson, whose hopes of retaining his Ryder Cup place were ended by a virus that he tried to play through with disastrous results.