Henrik Stenson has been there, done that. He turned professional in 1999, won the money title on the Challenge Tour in 2000 and graduated to the European Tour in 2001.
By 2009, he had seven world-wide titles and had risen to the Top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings. His wins included the 2007 WGC-Accenture Match Play and the 2009 Players Championship.
He earned over €1.0 million for five consecutive years 2005-2009 and then the bottom fell out for the big Swede.
After the win in the 2009 Players, he accepted membership on the PGA Tour for 2010. Trying to play in both America and Europe greatly affected his performance.
In 15 starts on the 2010 PGA Tour, he missed six cuts, earned $683,000 and finished No. 141 in the FedEx Cup rankings. Across the pond, he made all of his 15 cuts, but only had three top-10 finishes, earned €713,000 and finished No. 49 in the Race to Dubai.
2011 saw a further decline, plus financial problems off the golf course compounded his demise. He only posted one top-10 finish in Europe that year, earned less than €200,000 and ended the year at No. 136 on their money list.
He did not fare much better on the PGA Tour in 2011. Six missed cuts with total earnings of $328,000 put him at No. 180 in the FedEx Cup standings and he failed to qualify for the 2011 FedEx Cup playoffs.
By early 2012 Stenson had fallen from the Top 10 in the world to No. 212 and did not want to go to the golf course.
Stenson played in 15 events in Europe in 2012. In June he began to find his long-lost golf game and posted seven top-10 finishes in his last 11 starts including a win late in the season at the South African Open.
The win at the end of 2012, boosted his confidence and set him up for one of the most successful seasons in golf history in 2013.
We all know what he did last year winning the money titles on both tours plus winning the PGA Tour Championship and the DP World Championship.
What will he do for an encore in 2014?
Stenson’s game seems to be hitting on all cylinders and he is playing with supreme confidence every time he steps onto the golf course.
The only thing left for him now is to win a major title.
He has moved to No. 3 in the world and is the only player inside the Top 5 that does not have a major championship title on their resume’.
Stenson has the game and is now playing with the confidence to win multiple times on the PGA Tour and pick up some major hardware.
Many times we see a natural progression in players before they reach the pinnacle of success in golf. Adam Scott and Justin Rose both experienced the depths of golf disparity before they came out the other side to capture their maiden major championship victories last year.
At 37-years-old, Stenson has rebounded from his dark side and appears to ready to be a factor in golf for several years to come.
Will we see more victories and a major title for Stenson in 2014?
I wouldn’t bet against him.