Henrik Stenson has seen the depths in golf and in his personal life. He had a sponsorship deal with The Stanford Group that was dissolved in 2009 after conviction of its CEO Allen Stanford on fraud charges.
Stenson lost a substantial sum of money invested with Stanford Financial and the $11.4 million he earned on Sunday will help to heal those old wounds.
The win is also another big step in his run back up the Official World Golf Rankings. Early last year Stenson had fallen outside the top-200 in the world. He is now solidly at No. 4 behind only Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson.
A win last November on the European Tour at the South African Open gave him confidence and propelled him to a career year on the PGA Tour in 2013.
In his last seven events, he has one third-place finish, two runners-up and two wins. He earned $6.38 million in prize money for the season plus the $10 million FedEx Cup totals over $16 million for 2013.
Merry Christmas, financial problems solved.
He is also leading the Race to Dubai on the European Tour and with just three tournaments remaining in their regular season plus their playoffs, “The Final Series,” Stenson can add a few more Euros to his bank account.
Stenson won the 2007 WGC-Accenture Match Play and the 2009 Players Championship. With his two wins this year at the Deutsche Bank and the Tour Championship against top-name fields, he becomes “the best player yet to win a major.”
He finished just ahead of Tiger Woods for the FedEx Cup and his performance over the past three months has been Tiger-like.
The FedEx Cup crowned its eighth champion. Once again it has produced a worthy winner and provided a fitting end to the PGA Tour season.