Thursday, April 5, 2012

Henrik Stenson comes unraveled at the worst possible time


Henrik Stenson had it going on Thursday at the Masters. With a couple eagles on the front nine and a birdie on the 15th, the Swede found himself 6-under at the Masters with a couple holes to play. For a guy who'd never broken 70 in the tournament, this seemed like a turning point for Stenson.

He was the perfect darkhorse to make a run. Sneaky-good game? Check. Long off the tee? Check? Short game? Check. He seemed perfect. Almost too perfect, in fact.

Maybe that's why it shouldn't come as a surprise that he came unraveled late in his round. After bogeying the 16th, to fall to 5-under, Stenson stepped on the 18th hole after a par on the 17th and came unglued ... almost to the point where you wondered if he was going to storm off the course without signing his scorecard.

After hitting his tee shot under the trees on the left, Stenson asked for a drop from the pine straw but was denied. And that's where thing really went south for him. After nearly topping his second shot, it took Stenson three more swings before his ball found the green.

From there he hit his putt -- which was for six -- to about three feet ... and then proceeded to tie a nice bow on the hole with a final miss for a quadrulple-bogey 8 that saw him go from from potential leader in the clubhouse to posting a 1-under 70 that now has him four shots off the pace.

He now holds the record for worst performance on two separate holes at Augusta National, after he quintuple-bogeyed the par-3 fourth in 2011.

But wait, there's more! All this happened on Stenson's birthday. Talk about the perfect way to kick off the evening festivities.

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