THE PLAYERS' CHAMPIONSHIP

Cejka blows big lead:

Stenson wins by

four from Poulter

FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida -- Ingemar Stenson played hockey in his youth, as most Swedes do, and he turned to soccer and handball as an adult.
When a neighbour encouraged his eight-year-old son, Henrik, to start playing golf, though, the patriarch of the clan had no choice but to join him.
"I had to be at the course every night," Ingemar recalled with a shrug of his shoulders. "He didn't want to go home. Just one more bucket, he said, one more bucket. So I bought some clubs and then I understood how difficult the game was."
So it was only fitting that Ingemar was standing by the 18th green, crying like a baby, on Sunday as his son won The Players' Championship he so called "fifth major" - making up five shots on one of the game's most challenging courses, TPC at Sawgrass, to capture the biggest title of his career.
"Marvelous, marvelous," was all that an overwhelmed Ingemar, who turned 60 last week, could say as he saw his son win for the first time in person.
Stenson fired a bogey-free 66 on Sunday to overtake a faltering Alex Cejka (who finished with a 79), leave an erratic Tiger Woods (73) in his dust and turn back every other challenge at the Stadium Course. The Swede only missed two fairways on the weekend and won by four.
"It's a hell of a round of golf out there today," said Ian Poulter, who finished second. "Those greens, they were icy quick. ... You have to hit it in the right spot certainly at times and you had to take a few pins on today, so if you missed it on the wrong shelf, there was no way you were going to two putt. 66 is a great round."
The first time Stenson played the Stadium Course in 2006, he loved it. He tied for third that year and didn't finish lower than 23rd in his next two appearances. He has the patience to prosper when conditions are tough and he's prudent in the choices he makes.
"It's obviously a great feeling to have won this championship, and it's a golf course I really enjoy playing," Stenson said. "It suits my eye, suits my game, and I just handled myself very well throughout these four days, putted well and (gave) myself plenty of chances and stayed very level headed.
"I just like the whole concept of risk and reward (at the Stadium Course). You see pretty clearly what you can do, and if you pull off the shots, you're going to get rewarded, and if you don't, you're going to be in trouble a lot of times. I think it's a very fair and square golf course in that sense."
As well as he played, not everything went perfectly for Stenson over the weekend, though. He bogeyed three of his last five holes on Saturday to fall from two strokes behind Cejka to five. Not everyone would have handled the finish as well as the Swede, who isn't the same man his father remembers uttering choice words in anger and tossing clubs.
"When he became a father that was so key; and when he got married, too," Ingemar explained.
So Stenson simply went home to the house on the beach he'd rented -- "that I might have to buy now," he said -- and relaxed with his family. His wife, Emma, and their daughter, Lisa, were waiting there along with his mom and dad and sister, Ulrika, who abandoned golf for equestrian pursuits when she became a teen.
"He was very focused this morning," said Ingemar, who has whittled his handicap to 9 but never beaten his son. "Relaxed and focused at the same time."
Emma, who can relate more than most wives after playing golf at the University of South Carolina from 1996-2000, agreed.
"He's very calm and sensible," Emma said as she kept a watchful eye on an energetic Lisa as Stenson made the round of interviews. "The more you play it down, the better it usually goes and everybody knows one shot can make a big difference either way."
By the time he came to the final three holes on Sunday, the most difficult stretch on what had become an unforgiving course, Stenson had a three-shot cushion. He stretched that to four with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 16th and cruised to the victory, which was the second straight for an international player and 10th overall.
"It's definitely up there, if not the best final round I've done," Stenson said. "It's just going to give me a lot of confidence to go out there and control myself and play as well as I did today on the last day at TPC Sawgrass and to hold off such a strong field.
"It's just going to give me a lot of confidence going into the majors, and obviously if I can play as well as I did today, I surely can do it on a Sunday at the majors."
Stenson, who moved from ninth to fifth in the world on Sunday, is headed for the Bahamas next week to "practice some bunker shots," he said with a smile. He'll play two events on the European Tour before heading back to the States for a week off before the St. Jude Classic and U.S. Open.
Stenson, whose first win on American soil was at the 2007 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, really came into his own at the majors last year. He tied for third at the British Open and fourth at the PGA Championship, where "I felt like I was one out of four or five guys that had a chance to win it," he said.
"It just seems to bring the best out of me when I have to, playing the best players, and obviously now I feel like I'm up there where I belong when I'm playing good," Stenson said.
He's the first to admit that having Fanny Sunesson on his bag for the last 2 ½ years has been a huge benefit. His fellow Swede is regarded among the game's best caddies and, during their nine years together, she toted Nick Faldo's clubs for four of his six majors (Fanny and Henrik are picture above from a previous tournament).
"It's just been a great journey," Stenson said. " ... We just have a great time, and obviously with her experience being out there for 20-odd years and winning some great championships with some great players, I know that she's spot on with everything she does. I couldn't have a caddie that's more prepared than she is when we tee off."
Sunesson was there two months ago -- only holding his clothes rather than his bag -- as Stenson stripped down to his skivvies to play a ball in the water during the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral. The photos caused quite a stir worldwide and prompted his peers to present him with an autographed pair of undies at the Tavistock Club the following Monday.
"A lot of publicity for the game obviously," Stenson said, chuckling. "A lot of publicity for me, and I managed to get a few new fans, which is nice. I guess I got as much attention off that thing as from my results the last ten years. That's the way it felt like."
The Players' Championship will head his resume now, though. And as Stenson acknowledged the cheers of the crowd on this steamy Sunday afternoon, his tow-headed 2-year-old ran onto the 18th green and wrapped her father's leg in a tiny bear hug.
Maybe that will be the lasting image now.
+STENSON STATS: His average drive was 294.8yd. His average number of putts per green hit in regulation was 1.735. He hit 68.1% of the greens in regulation figures.

Cejka's five-stroke lead lasted one hour on Sunday
Alex Cejka began the final round of The Players' Championship with the largest 54-hole lead in the tournament's 36-year history. With an hour's play, it had gone. Just like that.
Cejka, partnered by Tiger Woods, was 5 over par through his first six holes on Sunday, erasing his five-stroke lead and leaving him in a free-fall from atop the leaderboard.
He finished up a sad day with seven-over-par 79, eight strokes behind winner Stenson, in a five-way tie for ninth place on four-under-par."It was one of these days where nothing is going your way," Cejka said. "There was a little bit of pressure, but I wasn't nervous at all," Cejka said. "I was trying to do my thing. But it's just a tough golf course. If I had a little bit better start. If I don't make the double bogey on 4, it looks totally different. That's sometimes golf."
"It could have been better, should have been better," he said. "But it's OK. I'm playing better, and it shows a little bit. Sometimes you've got to knock at the door a couple of times before you open it."