So with the pressure of winning the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup behind him, Henrik Stenson can breathe easy, right?
Not quite — because while he basks in the glory of his achievement, there is the matter of finding four Coca-Cola machines. That’s right, four.
“They for people who asked for them and I promised,” Stenson said. “I keep my promises.”
Stenson receives one as part of his Tour Championship (the tournament is presented by Coca-Cola, after all) and that’s earmarked for his home, which is good news for children Lisa and Karl. But he’s got four other requests, including one from fellow Swede and PGA Tour colleague Jonas Blixt.
“He sent me a picture the other day. He was sitting with a bottle (of Coke) and said, ‘I don’t know where to put it. I’m waiting for my Coke machine.’ Now, he’s going to get one. I’m trying to figure out how to get four more. (But) at least we have the cash to pay for them, right?”
NEW TEAM, OLD FRIENDS: Veteran caddie Gareth Lord has only worked for Stenson since 2012, but via his partnership with Robert Karlsson years ago, they have known each other for what seems forever. “So when we started with him (last year), the first week didn’t feel like the first week. You had been with him,” said Lord, a personable Englishman with a sense of humor to rival Stenson’s.
When the topic of Stenson’s much-publicized fit of anger at the BMW (he smashed a driver into a locker at Conway Farms) was broached, Lord merely shrugged. No harm, no foul.
“He’s not one to bottle things up,” said Lord. “What he did, he did. But if it wasn’t that, then he would have had to have done something to get it out of his system. He felt he was playing so well and he was so tired.”
DOUBLING UP ON THE FUN? After a few weeks of R&R at his home in Lake Nona, Fla., Stenson will get to work and return to action for the BMW Masters Oct. 24-27 in China, the first of the four events that comprise the European Tour’s answer to the FedEx Cup.
Stenson presently leads the Race to Dubai standings and will try and become the first one to win both that competition and the FedEx Cup. Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy have both won money titles on both sides of the pond in the same year, but neither won earned the FEC title.
