No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 316: Henrik Stenson

Episode Date: June 1, 2020

Henrik Stenson has often been one of the most requested guests in our podcast history, and he's joins us to chat about his new podcast, growing up in Sweden, emerging from not one but two enormous slumps, and of course the 2016 British Open. We talk breaking clubs, how he spends his summers, the new tour schedule, the challenge it presents for Europeans, and a lot more. Thanks a lot to Henrik for the time.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang-Up Podcast, Sully here. We have almost made it through this quarantine period with No Live Golf. We have to get through this week, and then the Charles Schwab challenge comes back in full force next week.

An amazing field lined up. We're going to be previewing that event in next week's episode. We're gonna hear shortly from Henrik Stenson, a podcast we've been trying to line up for quite some time. It is a shorter episode. I was supposed to have 30 minutes with him. I did what I usually do. I took him for longer than that,

but he was a bit limited. He's as you'll hear, he's getting ready to pack up and go to Sweden, which this was a couple of weeks ago. So he's back in Sweden with his family. He's known for a lot of things, breaking clubs, dry humor, hitting golf balls out of the water in his underwear. Most recently and most importantly, he's known for Caloets JAWS MD5 wedges.

You've heard us talk about them in reads and seen them in videos. Hendrick was in the recent JAWS MD5 TV commercial that if you're a golf channel junkie, you probably would have seen that. But something new on the JAWS MD5 front is that Calloway just released them in a raw finish. I will say this is the fastest. I have ever looked at an image of a golf club and said immediately that I need to have it. They were previously available in like a blingy chrome finish and a tour gray finish.

But now you can get them in a raw finish. It reduces the glare for, you know glare as you're playing in the summer. A lot more sunshine, going to be hitting your clubs directly. I hate when you have those wedge shots and the sun is just shining directly off of it. You got to go back and hit a different club. The different loft. It has the matte look that a lot of tour players prefer. Not only is the new finish available, but there's a new grind.

It's the T grind. Has a crescent sole and a higher center of gravity for control ball flight. I think I'm going to be getting my new wedges in that T grind based solely on that higher center of gravity. I need to figure out my distance control. I've not been very good at that lately. They sold me on that line. Hopefully they sell you on it as well.

You can check out the jaws MD5 raw wedges today at calibagolf.com. That's calibagolf.com to see the new jaws MD5 raw raw wages I'm telling you just go look at the image please just do it without any further delay here is the man of the hour Mr. Henrik Stenson all right you have got a new podcast coming out is this so you don't have to do podcasts like this anymore? uh combination I guess no it was suggested by my good friend, the Callaway Golf. And yeah, I really liked the idea. It's a chance to interact with the fan base and the golf fans

in a slightly different way than I've done before. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. And I get my main thought is to put you guys out of business. All right. It seems to be the trend. I mean, players are popping up almost on a weekly basis with their own podcast, but I do kind of want to ask you how that works, your relationship with the media,

and what is appealing, not only are players coming out with their own podcast and stuff like that, they're going on podcast, they're kind of taking a lot of their perspective more in long form. I was wondering, was some of it's been around the media and the game for as long as you have a million different press conferences? Can you compare kind of how,

what the appeal is of something like that to a player like yourself? Well, I just feel like it's a chance to, it's obviously interact with the fans on a slightly different, in a slightly different way. And with the questions and, and yeah I would say I'm I'm interested in seeing some of the questions that I'm going to get on this podcast and on the show and you know what kind of comes out of that segment but just an opportunity to share some things that

we might not always be at in these interviews or press conferences and so on and give our own perspective. So yeah I mean who knows where it takes us? Where we've got a list of segments and things that we want to try and touch base on but I think this is gonna it's not gonna be a straight line I'm sure it's gonna be something that will take different turns as we go along and as I learn and yeah I'm sure it's going to be something that will take different turns as we go along. And as I learn, I'm kind of curious to see where it takes us. But yeah, a lot of the media stuff is kind of the same week in a week out. So maybe this gives us a slightly different chance to communicate some different things. Well, you can correct me at any part of this,

but from what I understand the appeal for a lot of guys is also is when it comes to a press conference or media that's actually at a tournament and the questions you're asked, it's often for writers that have somewhat already decided what they're gonna write, they just gonna need you to comment on it to kind of weave into that.

And you're at great risk of your quote being taken, not out of context, but they're gonna pick the spiciest part of it, right? And the context of it gets lost in that you might laugh about it, you might have smiled about it, you might have kind of tried to be fun with it. Have you had any experiences like that where you've maybe seen something you've said in print

that wasn't as you intended it? Yeah mean it was it was actually not long ago nothing i mean when we're talking about media we're talking about something that's where it's very wide i mean we got anything from i mean we know like english tabloids and right small degrees Swedish tabloids i mean they just want to have a clickbait on on

a website or to try and sell today's tabloids. And if you're more into, should I say, serious journalism is going to be a different type of story, a different type of question as well. So we've got a very wide variety of questions with being asked, but I did an interview with the Guardian in England probably about a month ago, maybe longer. And it was actually a tabloid in Sweden that picked up on a few lines there. I'm scrolling through the news online and all of a sudden I see a quote from me saying

that I thought I was going to die. And this was all now put into context with the coronavirus and everything that's going on. And it was actually, I said, in the article that I had the flu 10, 50 years ago, and I felt so sick, I thought I was gonna die. So it's like, yeah, you can pick one, four thousand, throw it into another article

and something totally different can come out. So, yeah, I mean, there's always that risk, I think, in our line and in golf media and so on, it's not that often, but it happens. I feel quite fortunate in that sense that I haven't, I don't feel like I've been kind of targeted by any journalist really in

that sense, but it does happen and sometimes you read it quote from someone and you've got to realize that maybe that's not the way it was intended or meant by that person. So there's always a little risk, right? Right. Well, what kind of, I'm curious especially yourself as a European player, but you are, you are stateside currently, but what kind of an impact do you see COVID having on European and international players? For the players that are not currently over here, there's some additional challenges they have to face, such as quarantines once they re-enter the country. Did you consider

any of that while figuring out where you wanted to quarantine? And I know you live in like Nona, almost full-time, I guess you can help me with that, but do you foresee the travel restrictions having a big impact on how this return to golf will go for international players? Yeah, I think it was certainly played part.

I mean, of course, we all want golf to kind get back to normal, but I feel like, I mean, all of us want the world to get back to normal as close to as we can. And I mean, there seems to be great challenges in the months and years ahead of us to try and get to that. So, I don't know what my crystal ball is saying and what he always is saying, but it's going to be some challenging times for sure and yeah traveling and just people moving around as we used to before this pandemic is certainly going to restrict us and it's going to play a part in how we get your seasons going forward and also on Mayan.

I mean, I'm actually leaving to go back to Sweden tomorrow. So I'm going to fly back for the summer for at least six weeks, maybe even two months. And I will not be joining the PGA Tour in this early start-up stages. I'm going to be back with the family enjoying a bit of more time with them and see how we get going. And then I'll be back probably in the middle of the summer to start up my golf season again. So yeah, everyone's got to make different decisions, different choices here depending on whether they're living and everything else.

So it's challenging times for sure. Well, if you don't mind me asking, what is what is kind of your rationale and reasoning for, you know, were you always planning to take a break like this this summer or did the the impact of COVID kind of drive you to this decision and are some of like the the testing and the protocols and everything that's going to go into these PGA tour events starting back up. Is that preventing you from being enthusiastic about returning to golf? Well, so you said that we're living, we're living full time in Orlando, Florida, as like known about as soon as schools out my family always goes back for the

10 weeks to Sweden in the summertime. We have a summer house back there and to see family and friends and they want to do that this year as well. I mean, Orlando gets pretty pretty steam in the summer time and you know with us being Swedish and that time is important every summer for us. So they still wanna do that, and then with the travel restrictions and the quarantine rules, I'm not gonna be able to do like an order to go back and forth for a number of events

and get some off weeks in Sweden. So then I decided now to go back for the early part of the summer instead. And once I come back over here, I'm most at least as everything is looking now, it's gonna be a two week self quarantine period when I come back over here, at least as everything is looking now, it's going to be a two week self quarantine period when I come back. So then I'm only going to do that once. So if I'm going to get some time at home in Sweden get over here and the early parts of the start-up. I feel like I can sit back a little bit and get everything going and then I'll jump on the train at the second stage and rather than being there for the first takeoff. So we'll see how everything plans out, obviously, I hope it's going to go as smoothly as it can be

and that we can get back to playing competitive golf in a good way again. Again, we're talking about professional sport, which is a big part of our lives. This pandemic, obviously, impacts people in much bigger ways than not having something to watch on TV. So we all try to be wary of that and taking everything into account. And when lives are being lost, obviously our government always feels very much further down on the important list of things. So yeah, we all just got to try and help out and do the best we can in every shape before. Well, I'm wondering, first of all, you get the nail on the head there with Sweden being

a much better place to spend summer than Orlando. But do you get any sleep in Sweden in the summer? I mean, I think I was there in late May once and the sun rose about 3.30. So where do you live in Sweden? And is it is it even further north so that you're getting 24 hours of daylight on certain days up there in the summer? Yeah, I was born in Gothenburg, which is still very much in the southern port, and our place is even further down, just north of Malmö, across from Copenhagen and Denmark. So we're very much in the southern port and you've got a lot of daylight, that's for sure how I spend

her side of the family is from way up north and I've spent some time in that part of Sweden over the years and yeah it only gets a little shady for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and then the sun is up to 21, 22 hours per day. So, yeah, sleeping. Yeah, you certainly want to use the back out the shades when you're up there because it could be a challenge to get an up sleep. Well, we're recording this on Monday, May 18th. Yesterday was the tailor-made driving relief. Our first live golf we've had back. It was interesting to get a look at live golf without any fans played. Where do you stand on the possibility of a rider cup that would be played this year, this

fall, that would not have fans on it? Do you think that that event should go on as planned or should they postpone it until there's a time when you can have it with fans? I guess that's a million dollar question, isn't it? Now, minutes is so hard to know now exactly how things could work out. I mean, my feeling is to say, I mean, I love the ride of Cup. I've had some of my greatest golfing experience of my career has been from playing in the ride of Cup and the atmosphere.

And of course, it's not going to be able to get the same atmosphere. We're even close to it with no fans. I mean that's a certainty. On the other end I think it could still be the good and fierce competition because you know what you're playing for and all those things that will still bring a big part of it to that week if the event is being played. But yeah, I mean, I'd love to see it played with crowds. I guess we're just going to have to wait and see how this start-up of the PGA Tour season will go. And saving out that is the first four events if I'm not mistaken that will be without spectators. So, I mean, somewhere down the line, there's thoughts of having spectators,

obviously come back on the PGA tour. And if that can happen, then, you know, that why shouldn't right-click, be able to then have fans in some shape or form. So, I guess we're just gonna take one baby step at a time here and see how we get on. There's complications with moving it up in the next year because then you got precedence, you got the Olympics

hopefully and everything else. So it's no easy shuffles at this time, but I'd love to see with crowds in some shapes and at the same time I would love to see it play this year too. So yeah, I'm lucky those decisions are about my pay grade. I'm the same way. I just can't picture. Yeah, there's a lot of complications that come with delaying it yet at the same time. It's going to be such a not a dud without fans, but gosh, it's going to just be so different. But what about when it comes to qualification, do you think that there should be any adjustments

on either side, really on how these teams are determined? I have no idea what they really have planned for this But obviously a huge curve ball has been thrown in the qualification process Do you foresee any changes being made and if so how would how would you recommend they would be changed? I think the US list is since that one's going over a much longer period of time It's again, I'm not 100% on everything, because I'm European, I worry about the European list, but I think the US one is going pretty much

from the previous rowdy cup all the way up until the next one. So they will have played for more points than the European side had done up until this point, and with a cancellation of a lot of events, I think we only played for about 33% of the available points in the qualifications. So yeah, I think at some point here,

we've got to make decisions on the tournament, committee on the European tour. And we haven't really gotten into that part yet, because we have two lists. One is for the European points, and one is for the world ranking points accumulated during the qualification process. So, this time, the world ranking is frozen.

We don't know when that's going to open up, so that will have an impact as well. And if it does open up, when colonial say, here gets going, you're going to have a lot of European plays who will not be able to to keep on earning well ranking points because there's no play Europe at the same time. So it's yeah, if you get one one answer then that almost always always race is not a five questions here it seems so everything is connected and but I I feel like there will have to be some week because the qualification process have been affected that much so we certainly need to look at it and we will look at it but at this point we first first we've got to see if there is a right of cup to be played in 2020, otherwise taking all those

decisions are going to be kind of in vain. So we'll wait and see. Yeah, it's, I'm hoping for 12 captains picks. I've long advocated for that. And if there's ever a time to do it, that would be a good one. But completely changing gears here. I've had a good time kind of researching your career and getting more familiar with it in the last couple

of weeks getting ready for this interview. The ups and downs of it are extremely intriguing to me and learning about your growth into the game and some of the things you've dealt with early in the European tour. For those that don't aren't familiar, I'm also including myself in that, what was your amateur career like and then your transition into professional golf in your early years like on the European tour. When I was 18, 1994, I was selected for the boys team in Sweden. Ten guys who got on that squad and we got to travel around Europe

and sometimes even further out the plate of a world's boys amateur championship in Japan in 1994. So that was exciting times to travel all the way across the world. They go up there and then I moved on to the national team which had a bigger squad and obviously guys who were in college over here in the States and competition was harder and then you have to kind of start over from the beginning again and work your way up. So I had a decent amateur career and nothing great, like the British Am or anything like that.

But I wanted to do tournaments here and there and played on a lot of teams, the European team championships. And I kind of crowned it with the ice and how trophy, which is the World Championships for Framatures. And we played in Santiago and Chile, and I think Sweden finished six. So, I mean, yeah, decent amateur career, but nothing spectacular. And then, Sun Pro, and made a pretty quick transition in about

a year and a half by a went from amateur to winning the challenge tour, which is the step below the European tour, got onto the European tour in 2001, and I think I won my 10-11 events at the Belpvi and all the riding top venue and beach, and the best place on the European tour was there in clock in Montgomery and the Westwood and Thomas Bjorn and all the guys were there. So that was a very strong first win on tour for me. And about seven months later, I was struggling to get any green graft on the golf course. So yeah, it was certainly an interesting time spec then. Well, I'm going to read you a quote from a golf digest article in 2016 and it says that

Stenson would even be playing tournament golf in 2016 was unbelievable in 2001 and you said I was in a pretty dark place but I've shown more than once that I'm not a quitter. So, what happened? Like you said, you won three times in the challenge tour in 2000, come out winning your 11th start at the Belfry in 2001. And then, so, what happened with your golf swing? Was it a mental thing? And how did you cope with it yeah obviously i've been asked that question a million times and uh... uh... it is too really they go hand in hand the same way uh... when you play good they connected and they're gonna be connected when you

play poorly so uh... i've used the saying that you normally don't develop mental problems if you if you hit a three hundred 300 yards down the center line all the time. Then you're not stop worrying about missing fairways. So yeah, I just started spraying it really off the tee. And the first 20 provisional shots were probably no, not much thought in, but when you're hitting your 50th provisional tee shot, and then you start thinking like, oh, what's down the left or what's down the right here?

So, yeah, certainly, certainly ended up with both the technical and the mental problem and, you know, there's always something good coming out of something bad and that's when my, one of my ex-caddies and that I worked with back in 2001, he introduced me to Pete Cowan at the end of that year, and I started seeing Pete, and it was a long journey together with him, and also my mental coach back in Sweden, and it took us probably about two seasons, year and a half, two seasons, before we were back playing really good golf again. So, yeah, that was certainly challenging times, but I think you learned the most about yourself

and what you need to do when things are tough. And you really got a deep to get back. So I think I'm proud over a lot of fun, the wins and a lot of things I've achieved on the golf course are going through the two slumps that I've gone through. It's that's really character building and something I'm really proud of. We had Brendan Todd on the podcast last fall,

and he was very open and honest about the yips that he had with his long irons and woods, and he explained what the technical issue was with that, and there's about arm tension. And honestly, I've had so many people reach out to me and say, ever since I heard that Brendan Todd podcast, I've loosened up my arms, and I've improved a lot. So I actually do wanna ask, what the technical things that you worked on with Pete Cowan,

and I believe your sports psychologist is Torsten Hansen if I'm reading that right, but what did you guys work on in the line that got me to was about hitting long irons with your eyes closed. So how did you address it? What are the specifics of how you address this? In the beginning obviously I hit bad shots and I mean people are not happy with the with the way I look technically when I came to him. So if you both have a

technical issues, I mean most most golfers and I know there's a lot of key and amateur plays that listen to to your podcast that will soon only listen to my podcast, but they want to learn how to improve and work better. But most players in this game play just with hand-eye coordination or compensations and timing, really. The better your technique and get, the less you're going to be dependent on that. So my swing was obviously not where Pete wanted it. We had put a lot of work into that side of things, but at the same time

mentally then I mean I had no confidence and yeah you develop a bit of a block, a mental block when you're going to hit the shot. Yeah you're basically scared of where you're going to hit it and you got no trust in that is kind of go where you want it to. So other than just working on the technical side and trying to improve and get better there, we hit shots with my eyes closed because then you can't really know when the moment of impact is going to be right. It gave me the opportunity to swing more freely and just start to swing and finish the swing and kind of pick up the ball somewhere in the middle there. So I think a lot of times we're trying to just hit the ball and instead of making a good path that collects the ball on the way.

So I think that could be something. I mean, I don't want to be responsible now for people hitting course and and watching it all over the place, but they're playing golf line for over here. But it can certainly be something to think about and maybe give a little bit of a go at times. Because in pro-arms, I mean, I see a lot of guys who make a great couple of practice swings, but then it's certainly much more of a stab when they're going to hit the actual shot. So the more you can connect that and just making that swing and letting the ball get in the way of the club rather than actually trying to hit the ball, I think that could be useful for some.

Well having played a pro-M with you, I'm wondering if that comment is targeted at me, but we'll move on from that. But the reason I'm kind of considered to be an eye to guy at times, I didn't want to bring that up. Yeah, let's just leave it at that. My swings in pants. Well, the reason I say that is, I think you're kind of ask about that is you are well known. I think if people ask about Hinder Extents and the first thing that will come to mind is your three wood and how well you hit your three wood. But I was stunned to see this

that your strokes gained approach on the PGA tour. You were first in 2019, first in 2018, first in 2015, and if you had enough qualifying rounds in 2016 and 17, you would have been second and third. So you went from not being able to find the club face to being maybe not in arguably the greatest iron player in the world right now. So there has to be something, I guess that's the question. Were you always such a great iron player coming up, or is that a skill that, you know, you've just really honed over the

years? Yeah, there's no question that both striking has been the strong part of my game throughout my career. Accuracy and I think especially back probably 2005, 2007 or on that time I was probably the best kind of accuracy and length combined at that time. For some reason we don't hit any further as we get older I guess but I was really hitting a lot of fairways and hitting it, you know, real good distance. I still don't consider distance to be an issue for me, but there's a lot of guys out there who can hit a lot further than me, but the accuracy with the longer

irons have always been a good strength of mine. And yeah, so anything from 4 on to 8, 9 on, I feel pretty confident to take on a lot of the guys in that kind of range and It's certainly been an important part of my career to hit solid accurate iron shots and set up a few extra birdie chances compared to some other players Yeah, long game that's in my strength What really made a difference for me with the work I did with E-T back in 4 or 5 was to elevate my short game to a higher level. And that's really when I broke into the top 15 in the world and started to be in all the big events, the WGC's and the majors and so on. So the same driver show putt for dough that does certainly a lot of truth in that. So if you want to compete with the best, you can't really call to have any massive weaknesses. And you got to work on all aspects of the game and trying to be competitive in every

department really. Well, also on that note, you have nine top five finishes in majors. And the one major you've won, you had to play literally maybe the best golf that's ever been played. And for a lot of golf fans, it's either win or bust. They don't care that much about who finishes second or who finishes fifth. But for someone that's been in the game a long time and competed for so many of these championships, can you put into perspective how hard it is to win a major championship?

Yeah, it certainly didn't come easy on my end. As we know, you're looking at all the players, we got a bunch of guys who have had select careers, they're great players and I'd great careers, but they didn't manage to get a win in the major and get one done on their CV. It's obviously disappointing for some guys. I still don't feel like a career should only be made or broken on major championships. They play a big part, but I would have been very happy with my career, with or without the open win. It's obviously the icing on the cake and I feel like it elevated a lot of my other players WGC's, FedEx, Carp race to the buy. I mean a lot of other

great things that I've managed to accomplish get elevated with the open win and it all kind of makes a very nice and solid package. But you have a number of players as well. They're one majors, but they might not have won that much outside those major wins either. And then you've got the guys who've got a bunch of everything. So it's certainly hard, you've got to have a little bit of luck as well. We've been playing four majors a year, and if you're up to playing them for five or maybe ten years, I mean it's hard to win golf tournaments. You play against 144, 156 other guys, pretty much every week.

And it's a game where we don't win a lot. So yeah, you need a little bit of fortune too, but it's certainly the toughest test on some of the best and toughest golf courses and they're not easy to win. So I'm delighted to manage to get that one and standing there on the first tee or trough and on the Sunday afternoon with Phil I would have taken a 71 if that would have given me the clarity of the job for sure but the way it turned out would play some of our best golf for both of us that just made it even more rewarding to come on top and in that great match and I guess make it

even more memorable, super excited to won that one in 2016. Well, do you and Phil ever talk about that week? Did he say anything to you afterward? I mean, from what I forget who came up with this stab, but basically somebody measured the greatest performances in major and modern major championship history. Your performance was second only to Tigers, statistically speaking, Tiger in 2000, and Phil's was the fifth best in modern history, and he didn't win the title. Did you guys ever talk about any of the fall-out from there, any funny snide comments he's made to you after that? No, I mean, I just know that he was obviously disappointed, but he took that defeat very

graciously. I mean, he's out to Tiger, he's the second best player to play the game in the last 20 or 20 or 20 years. So, I mean, it's a great competitor. I think that kind of helped me on that final round or the last two rounds that will play together. I knew he was going to come up to me as well and much as he can and that just kind of pushed me onwards to try and get the absolute best out of my game and I certainly did that. So I think that

was great. I wouldn't have shot 20 on the four and I'd find around 63 if he wasn't chasing me the way he did. So yeah, it was just one of those great, great battles and always humbling when you mentioned in that company, you know, and when you're up there and playing against the best place of your generation. Well, it was a great week and I wish I could shake that out once more. The interesting thing, I played with Bill a lot in 2016.

I think we played the first couple of rounds at Agasta, and we were drawn together at US Open. We're playing at Oldmont, and I played the solid first round, and we were waiting in the early stages of the second round, and he said, yeah, you're playing, he just gave me, other than the blue really gave me a great compliment and said, you hit some fantastic shots here in the first round and yeah, you really got the game to win a major championship

and I said, yeah, I mean, I appreciate that. And I said, as long as it's not going to be on your expense, I'm going to show you happy with that. And then five weeks later, it's true and happened. So it was like, that was just weird. And that's what I said to him when we're walking off 18 on the Sunday. And we're kind of right next to each other there. And I just said, you remember the conversation?

He goes like, oh yeah. What was there any special motivation for you going up against him specifically in that 2013 at Mirfield, you were a runner, the runner up to him. He, it wasn't, it's not necessarily remembered as a Stenson, Michelson duel as 2016 is, but he had this crazy birdie finish to win it by three. But does that even somewhat enter your mind as you're playing there in 2016? It isn't really at that time because I, that was one of the, one of my best chances really to win a major up until that point.

And I think we were four or five players. It was pretty tight when we entered the back nine. And I remember I had a lip- bird on ten and then I made a bit of a clumsy bogey on I think 12 or 13 or something like that but then I still finished strong and finished second but it didn't feel like it was more I was one of the guys in the intention and Phil was there and then he pulled away with think, four birdies in the last six holes to win it pretty comfortably in the end. So I didn't feel like it was a rematch or anything like that. Well, I told him actually when we were going out

to the price giving, because he wanted a true and if he was required to attend the price giving and I said, well, I stood there in 2013 and they didn't even remember that I was second in 2013. So it just shows you when you're kind of excited about your win and you're in coming off a finish like that. You might not even remember who's the next on the green receiving the silver medal. But it didn't feel like it was a rematch in that sense. I just felt like I had that run rough finish at the open in 2013. I had a couple of third finishes at the open and some good finishes at both use open and use PGA. So I felt like it doesn't matter to me if I've

been a second or third or fourth. I was just all in for the win here or through and nothing else really really matters matters of course if the battle is lost and you can't win you're much rather finished second is for ranking points and FedEx points and a healthier check in everything else but you know when I was going into that Sunday it was just winning or nothing really that was in my mind. Well before I let you go you had touched the two, you mentioned two slumps in your career. I'm wondering if you could take listeners through the timeline of the second slump and

what caused it and whether or not the perspective of coming out of the first one really helped you through the second one as well. Yeah, it did for sure. So we're talking about back in winning ways on the European tour in 2004 off the going through this Red bad time. Oh, too was really deceased and that was horrible and oh three I was Still struggling but towards the end of that year I kind of got it together a little bit for more and and then you know for a one my second time on the European tour and that really felt like it was you know come back and

had some some great wins throughout the 05 or 6 or 06 or 7 or 8, 09 and won the players in 09 and it was kind of after that maybe a year after something like that, maybe I had to climb the ball a little bit or, you know, other things to ball a little bit or other things to family and so on you get kids that's always going to impact your day-to-day life. I think it seems like some guys are playing better when they have a kid and some guys seem to play a little bit worse because of maybe the distraction and lack of sleep and too many diaper changes or whatnot, but it's certainly a life-changing experience to get children and they will impact it one way or the other.

Then in 2011 I was just playing poorly and I guess no matter what I try to do really, I didn't really get it to turn around. And I think compared to the slump I had in the 1 or 2 or 3 there, the 1 in 11 was really kind of baby stuff in that sense. So I feel like at the end of that year I was just tired of playing badly. So I kind of took a step back or two and then regrouped and I had not worked with my mental coach there for a couple of years either and we kind of started back up really a program to get back into things and yeah hard work pays off and it was really some of the work I did myself in

the early part of 2012 and then in the summer time I started up with my mental culture again and it was really the work that was put in on the 2012, I think that was really bare-froos in 2013 and onwards. And yeah, a lot of it is about motivation and hunger and playing poorly for a long time. I think it was frustrating, but it also gave me the energy to want to come back and play well again. So it seems like it empsen flows and I mean nothing is a straight line. The stock market certainly not and life in general. So yeah sometimes we kind of go backwards but it's also about really putting the work in and making sure you come back even better and I

managed to do that. So yeah, I've had some some great runs and I've been some challenging times, but 20 years on tour you wouldn't expect anything else either really. So yeah, you've got to work hard and if you do, I think you get rewarded. Hey, man. Well, last one, last question, let's you get out of here. But how many clubs would you say you've broken over your golf career? Why did that have to be the long question? Well, that's so mean. Okay. Yeah. That's for me saying that you stabbed it when we played together in the program and everything else. I had to get one shot. It come on. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot. It's not something I'm proud of. I think at the same time, it's not something I want to

certainly take out of there, because I think that kind of fire in the belly, I expect a lot from myself, I expect a lot from my team around me, and I'm sure that can be harder at times, even though I would like to consider myself a fair guy. So, I mean, when I'm going to be the one making the most mistakes, hitting the most bad shots and everything else, but still, I guess that's the downside of being a bit of a perfectionist. I probably broke in more clubs in practice than I've done during competition. And there's a lot, I'm not even going to try and estimate the number. It's not the one that you want to show up, especially not for kids and so on.

It could set a bad example. So I'm trying to make it graciously these days. And I think with age, everyone seems to calm down a little bit. So it's certainly less in the last 10 years than it was before that. I don't know if we can leave it at that. You're just trying to show off how fast the Calloway trucks can turn around new equipment, that's what it is, right?

Put a positive... Yeah, they certainly had the work over the years and I thanked them for that. And I think instead of paying for some reshaps and so on, I hope I've given that money to charity and made up for that part. So, yeah. Well, that's great.

Well, thank you very much, Henrik, for joining us and best of luck with your summer travels and enjoy your summer up in Sweden. We look forward to hearing you on your podcast very soon as well as your return to golf. Thank you so much. Great talking to you. Cheers.

They say everyone, thank you. Bye. It's been a right club. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Better than most! Expect anything different! Oh Expect anything different