- published: 05 Apr 2016
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Henrik Stenson (born 5 April 1976) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays both on the PGA and European Tours. He has spent over 100 weeks ranked in the World top ten and his career high ranking of fourth is the best by any Swedish golfer.
Stenson was born in Gothenburg. He turned professional in 1999 and the following year topped the money rankings on the second tier golf tour in Europe, the Challenge Tour. He joined the main European Tour in 2001 and has won six European Tour events. From 2005 to 2008 he finished each year in the top 10 of the European Order of Merit.
Stenson reached the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings in 2006 and the top 10 in 2007. In February 2007, he reached number eight in the rankings following his victory at the Dubai Desert Classic and became the highest ranked European golfer for the first time.
The following week, Stenson then became the first Swede to win one of the World Golf Championships when beating Geoff Ogilvy 2&1 in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. This victory took Stenson to the top of the European Order of Merit and also to a high of 5th in the world rankings, which is also the highest a Swedish player has ever been ranked, surpassing Jesper Parnevik's previous record of reaching seventh place in May 2000. In all, he spent over 90 weeks in the top 10 of the rankings since 2007.