Edited by Anand Datla
March 22, 2015: Henrik Stenson considers himself a perfectionist, so much so that even though he finished fourth in each of his last two starts he wasn’t satisfied with his ball-striking. That led the 38-year-old Swede who lives in nearby Lake Nona to call his coach Pete Cowen on Wednesday evening. It was midnight back in England but the late-night session seems to be paying off.
Stenson shot his second-straight 66 on Saturday to take a two-stroke lead at 16 under over Morgan Hoffmann through three rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. Four others, including defending champion Matt Every, were another stroke back.
“The golf courses that we played all these three weeks sets up nicely for my game,” Stenson said. “This week I definitely played the best out of those three weeks.”
After just two birdies through his first 14 holes Saturday, Stenson made a 12-footer for birdie on the 15th, followed with an eagle from 20 feet on the par-5 16th and two holes later stuck his approach to two feet to set up an easy closing birdie.
A day earlier, Stenson played the same stretch of holes in 4 under with four straight birdies to finish. All parts of his game appear to be clicking. Through three rounds, he is fifth in fairways hit, seventh in greens in regulation and second in strokes gained-putting.
“Today was, all in all, a better played round than (Friday) even though the result was the same,” Stenson said. “I felt like I hit better shots and striking has been good this week, which has been a little off the previous two weeks.”
All of it bodes well for Stenson and the Masters just over two weeks from now. He said he would be pleased if he played this well in the year’s first major, but he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.
“Augusta is definitely in the back of my mind,” Stenson said. “I got a few things I’m kind of working on towards Augusta but still we’re here now and playing the final round (Sunday) and I’m going to try my hardest to do a good job (Sunday) and try and close out this golf tournament to win here.”
Rory McIlroy’s goal at the start of the week was to get into contention — a feeling he hadn’t experienced since early in the year during the European Tour’s desert swing when he finished second and first in two starts.
Through 13 holes Saturday, he was. McIlroy was 4 under on the day, coming off back-to-back birdies and within a stroke of the lead. Then he toed his tee shot on the par-3 14th, where he came up short of the green and made bogey. He followed by missing a 2-footer for par on the next hole and added a third-straight bogey after leaving a short pitch in the rough on the par-5 16th and failing to get up-and-down.
McIlroy finished with a 71 and trails by seven. “There was parts of the round that were good,” said McIlroy, who has broken 70 just once in nine rounds on the PGA TOUR this year. “I have to concentrate on that and focus on the positives and try and take those into (Sunday).”
A day after shooting 66 it looked like McIlroy might post another low number. He reached the par-5 sixth in two, barely missing an 11-foot putt for eagle before tapping in for birdie. Two holes later, he chipped in for birdie before adding two more at the par-5 12th and the par-4 13th, where he sank a 15-footer to move into second.
The momentum was short-lived, however, and McIlroy’s 25-foot birdie try on the last also slid past the hole. But it was the sloppy mistakes that bothered him most. “There’s times when I’m really comfortable and then times that I’m still not too comfortable so it’s highlighted a couple of different things,” McIlroy said. “But for the most part I’ve got what I wanted out of it.”
