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Henrik Stenson takes his place along with Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy as Europeans who have risen to have dominant years in terms of big wins and earnings on both sides of the ocean. Stenson is playing the best golf in the world right now, winning both the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai with superlative performances. His ball striking is superior, and when he got hot with the putter there was no stopping him. He hits the ball long, but is definitely the straightest long hitter on the planet at the moment. As we look closely at his swing the thing that stands out the most is his hyper-active trigger move to start his swing. Brandel Chamblee has tried to compare Stenson to Tiger Woods with the driver, noting that Stenson does not lower in his backswing, while Tiger is lowering both back and down. The fact is that Stenson sets up fairly tall to the ball, then lowers close to 4 inches before he moves the club back. While you could argue that his swing doesn’t really start until he moves the clubhead, in my opinion this large amount of lowering is part of Stenson’s swing motion. At the same time as he lowers he counter-rotates his hips (a la Rory McIlroy) and moves well off the ball to the right, none of which seem to affect his ability to strike consistently compressed and accurate shots. He likes to add bend to his right elbow all the way to the top, and even though he squeezes his arms together in the downswing his right upper arm is a bit more behind him than a lot of great ball strikers. He has great pivot and shaft control, however, and manages to release his right arm to the left while turning his head almost level to the ground. He is quite close to being the type of “head turner” that we see in Duval, Sorenstam and Allenby, and he achieves a great right side “cover” move as a result. His overall strength is evident in the overall pace of his swing, which is as fast as there is on any tour.
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