I think golf has changed: Stenson
Swede believes players unlikely to dominate like Woods.
"It’s going to be very difficult to be as dominant as Tiger was in the early 2000s, when he was winning most of his championships", says Henrik Stenson. PHOTO: AFP
SHENZHEN:
World number three Henrik Stenson believes there has been a major change in golf as one player is unlikely to dominate the way Tiger Woods did during his prime.
Injury-plagued Woods won the last of his fourteen majors six years ago and the sport’s subsequent top prizes have been shared among 19 different players.
“I think golf has changed a lot,” said Stenson, ahead of the Volvo China Open in Shenzhen.
“The last five years we’ve seen so many different players winning major championships.
“With these young guys coming through and playing so well, it’s going to be very difficult to be as dominant as Woods was in the early 2000s, when he was winning most of his championships.”
Only four golfers have won more than one major since the American’s triumph at the 2008 US Open — Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson, who won his second green jacket earlier this month.
There have been 15 first-time major winners during that period.
The statistics are in sharp contrast to Woods who won three majors in the year 2000 alone before winning at Augusta in 2001.
He slowly worked his way and reached the top spot early last year but an injury forced him to miss the Masters for the first time in 20 years raising questions about whether he will match Jack Nicklaus’s haul of 18 major titles.
He is currently suffering from a back injury, and will return at an uncertain date. It is not clear whether he will be fit enough to play the second major of the season — the US Open at Pinehurst Number two in June.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2014.
World number three Henrik Stenson believes there has been a major change in golf as one player is unlikely to dominate the way Tiger Woods did during his prime.
Injury-plagued Woods won the last of his fourteen majors six years ago and the sport’s subsequent top prizes have been shared among 19 different players.
“I think golf has changed a lot,” said Stenson, ahead of the Volvo China Open in Shenzhen.
“The last five years we’ve seen so many different players winning major championships.
“With these young guys coming through and playing so well, it’s going to be very difficult to be as dominant as Woods was in the early 2000s, when he was winning most of his championships.”
Only four golfers have won more than one major since the American’s triumph at the 2008 US Open — Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson, who won his second green jacket earlier this month.
There have been 15 first-time major winners during that period.
The statistics are in sharp contrast to Woods who won three majors in the year 2000 alone before winning at Augusta in 2001.
He slowly worked his way and reached the top spot early last year but an injury forced him to miss the Masters for the first time in 20 years raising questions about whether he will match Jack Nicklaus’s haul of 18 major titles.
He is currently suffering from a back injury, and will return at an uncertain date. It is not clear whether he will be fit enough to play the second major of the season — the US Open at Pinehurst Number two in June.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2014.