The Swedish golfer on his straightforward approach to clothing and life and balancing time in the gym with time on the green
For a man who once stripped down to his underwear at the WGC-Cadillac Championship to play a shot from a water hazard, Henrik Stenson is remarkably conservative when I ask him to envisage a scenario where there are no rules of dress on the golf course. “I’m all for having some kind of code. I don’t think I would play in a tracksuit if it were allowed,” he laughs down the line from his hotel room in Akron, Ohio, prior to his appearance at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. “I guess we could play in shorts if it gets ridiculously hot. Living in Florida, when I’m at home I practice in shorts all the time. But it’s important to wear clothes on the golf course that fit and look like they belong on you. I get a lot of help from the team at HUGO BOSS .”
Stenson’s no nonsense approach to clothing mirrors his outlook on life. “I’m a straightforward shooter, I don’t like bullshit. I value people who are honest and stand up for what they say. I take that pretty seriously. I’m also pretty hard on myself in terms of performing and working hard on my game. I’m sure I can be hard on the people around me too.”
Born and raised in southern Sweden, Stenson has been in the US since 2012 with his wife Emma, also a golfer, and two children. “Emma has an understanding about the game and how much time and effort you have to put into it in order to get where you want to be. She’s very supportive in that sense,” he tells me with obvious pride.
Stenson is now very much where he wants to be professionally. After slipping to 230th in the world at the beginning of 2012, he now sits third after a meteoric 2013 in which he won both the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup. He credits his success partially to a new strength and conditioning regime. “75 to 80 percent of players on the tour are working with physios and trainers to keep their bodies in good shape, so they can train hard and avoid injury. I think that started when Tiger (Woods) hit the scene. He wasn’t a very physical player, but he hit the ball a long way.
“Golf is very repetitive and takes its toll on the body. All of us have issues now and then but it’s about trying to keep the body in good shape and keeping it balanced. I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t have been able to keep that long run going I had last year if I wasn’t in decent shape.”
This sense of contentment extends to his private life, though he does admit to missing certain things about Sweden – he and his family have just returned from a break in Barsebäck when we speak. “It was hard to pack up and fly yesterday, I wouldn’t have minded staying for another couple of days. It was gorgeous weather at home and we’d had a great week with some friends from Orlando and their kids. Then it was time to go back to work and fly to the US to play a golf tournament,” he says with a hint of a sigh.
“But I’m in a very fortunate situation on the tour, we all are. We get to play the sport we love for a living, travel the world and see so many places. I said, even before last year, that I was very happy with what I’d achieved. Even if that had been the end of my career I would’ve been very happy. It’s been an incredible journey, you have to be thankful for that.”
