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Henrik Stenson wins Players Championship

Monday, 11 May 2009
Fergus Bisset
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Henrik Stenson

Sweden’s Henrik Stenson overturned a five shot deficit with a bogey-free final round of 66 to claim the Players Championship by four shots from Ian Poulter of England.

Alex Cejka of Germany led going into the final round but he quickly took himself out of contention, playing the first nine in six over par 42. Tiger Woods also had a poor day at the office and three bogeys on the front nine put him too far back to mount a serious challenge.

Stenson, on the other hand, played near perfect golf on Sunday. He parred the first six holes then made six birdies in the last 12 to card a 66 and secure a four-stroke victory. The win lifts him to fifth on the Official World Golf Ranking.

“It's just going to give me a lot of confidence going into the majors.” He said. “Obviously, if I can play as well as I did today, I surely can do it on a Sunday at the majors.”

England’s Ian Poulter finished alone in second place and was left to marvel at Stenson’s excellent final round.

“I was thinking that if I could finish in front of Tiger, that might be good enough,” he said. “But I wasn't expecting someone to go out there and shoot 66.” Poulter is up to 18th on the Official World Golf Ranking.

Tiger closed with a disappointing 73 to finish in eighth spot, seven shots behind Stenson.

“When you're playing a golf course like this, and you don't have it, and the greens are this fast and this hard, you can shoot some pretty high numbers.” He said.

Another Englishman, Brian Davis finished the week in a tie for fifth.

The Players Championship
TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
May 7-10, purse $9,500,000, par 72

1   Henrik Stenson (Swe)   68   69   73   66   276   $1,710,000
2   Ian Poulter (Eng)       67   68   75   70   280   $1,026,000
T3   John Mallinger (USA)   66   71   74   70   281   $551,000
T3   Kevin Na (USA)       71   66   74   70   281   $551,000
T5   Ben Crane (USA)       65   73   72   72   282   $346,750
T5   Brian Davis (Eng)       71   69   71   71   282   $346,750
T5   Jim Furyk (USA)       68   74   71   69   282   $346,750
8   Tiger Woods (USA)   71   69   70   73   283   $294,500
T9   Aaron Baddeley (Aus)   71   71   76   66   284   $237,500
T9   Alex Cejka (Ger)       66   67   72   79   284   $237,500
T9   Tim Clark (RSA)       72   69   74   69   284   $237,500
T9   Vijay Singh (Fij)       71   72   74   67   284   $237,500
T9   David Toms (USA)   67   70   77   70   284   $237,500

Note: Players in bold signifies Titleist ball usage only