STENSON READY FOR ONE FINAL PUSH WITH HIS WEARY BODY IN CHICAGO

The only Swedish man to have won a major championship, Stenson had a litany of sickness through the year that derailed his current season. Ranked 41st in the Individual Standing, he is not in any danger of falling in the dreaded Drop Zone, but it just does not sit well with someone who has always set lofty standards for himself.

It all started with the first tournament of the 2024 season in Mayakoba, when Stenson suffered a serious bout of food poisoning and only a last-minute decision saw him tee it up. That was followed by a viral infection, and 10 days before Miami, he contracted COVID that laid him low for more than a week.

The Miami tournament was in the first week of April, but Stenson feels he still hasn’t recovered completely. “The first third of this season was just one thing after another. And I somehow still feel like I’m worn out and low on energy. There is this lingering tiredness, which I guess comes with COVID. It has affected me in the later part of my rounds and definitely hasn’t let me practice and train as much as I would like to,” Stenson said on the eve of LIV Golf Chicago, the last tournament of the regular season before next week’s Team Championship in Dallas.“

I am personally looking to have a good off-season after Dallas, even though I have a couple of hectic weeks right after with a couple of weddings to attend in Europe, including that of Martin Kaymer’s. I am then going to focus on getting healthy, and then probably start some heavy practicing in January to get ready for the 2025 season.“

So at this point, I’m gonna try the best I can these last two weeks, and then we've got a healthy break to reassess and make a plan for being better prepared. “It will be my last year of contract with LIV Golf, so I need to make sure I am ready to give it my best shot. A quick start to the season would be very important and I want to make sure I am completely fit to make that happen.”Majesticks are currently 11th in the season-long Team Standings and even if they win in Chicago, they do not have a chance to make it to the top three and get a bye for the first round in Dallas.

Speaking about the season, Stenson added: “There's been some good individual tournaments throughout the year, but as a team, we haven't reached our potential. We came close on a couple of occasions, but came up short in the final stretch in Hong Kong and Nashville. “Everyone wants to try and finish off the individual season with a good performance this week. Get a solid week in and get some momentum for next week. We believe we can still turn things around if we collectively play better. “We are all just trying to, hopefully, pick up some pace here, and we’ll see if we can make something happen in Dallas. The teams that are on top in the overall standings, are there for a very good reason. They are the ones who played best over the year, but its match play, and strange things have happened in that format.”

Sam Horsfield, who needed to pull out of Greenbrier because of a recurrence of a foot injury, is back in the team this week.“I really feel for Sam. He has just come out of his hip surgery and extensive rehab, and then another kind of issue appears,” said Stenson of the young Englishman, who finished runner-up in Nashville earlier this year.“

I’m just glad to see him back this week. He had started to play some solid golf, so hopefully, the time away didn't kind of hit the pause button on that.”