European Tour In 1998, Stenson turned professional. Two years later topped the money rankings on the second-tier golf tour in Europe, the
Challenge Tour. He joined the main
European Tour in 2001, and that year, he won the
Benson & Hedges International Open for his first European Tour victory. Each year from 2005 to 2008, he finished in the top 10 of the
European Tour Order of Merit. Stenson reached the top 20 of the
Official World Golf Ranking in 2006 and the top 10 in 2007. In February 2007, Stenson became the first Swede to win one of the
World Golf Championships when he beat
Geoff Ogilvy 2&1 in the final of the
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. This victory took Stenson to the top of the
European Order of Merit and to fifth in the world rankings, which was also the highest a male Swedish player had ever been ranked, surpassing
Jesper Parnevik's previous record of reaching seventh place in May 2000. In all, Stenson spent
over 100 weeks in the top 10 of the rankings between 2007 and 2010. Stenson failed to add to his success over the rest of the season and finished in fourth place on the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit. Stenson made his
Ryder Cup debut in 2006, and after getting a half-point in the foursomes against
Stewart Cink and
David Toms on the Friday, he holed the winning putt and ensured that Europe won the
Ryder Cup for a third consecutive time when he beat
Vaughn Taylor 4 & 3 in the Sunday singles. He played again in
2008 at Valhalla, tallying a win, a loss and a draw in the foursomes. However he was not as fortunate as two years before, losing the singles on Sunday 3 & 2 to
Kenny Perry. In March 2009, Stenson created a storm in the media after stripping to his underwear and golf glove in order to play a recovery shot from a muddy water hazard at the first round of the
WGC-CA Championship.
PGA Tour In May 2009, Stenson won the PGA Tour's flagship event,
The Players Championship, with a dominating final round score of 66 to finish four ahead of
Ian Poulter. The win was his first American
stroke play victory. This win again brought him to fifth in the
Official World Golf Ranking. The following week he moved up to fourth without playing. Stenson focused on the
PGA Tour for most of the remainder of his career. Stenson faltered after reaching a career OWGR high. He struggled during most of the 2011 season, when he made 9 of 15 cuts but had no top-10 finishes. His world ranking fell to 230 at the beginning of 2012. On 5 April 2012, Stenson led during the first round of the
Masters Tournament with two eagles on the front nine to lead at 6-under-par until the 18th hole. He scored a quadruple-bogey on the par-4 18th hole, tying the Masters' record for the highest score ever on that hole. for his performance in the 2013 season. In 2013, a resurgent Stenson had a watershed season, scoring a number of victories and high-place finishes while cementing a reputation as one of golf's best ball-strikers. In the
2013 Open Championship at
Muirfield, Stenson finished as the runner-up, three strokes behind
Phil Mickelson, with a total of 284 (E) for the tournament. He shot a final round of 70 and held the lead for brief moments during the round, but was beaten by Mickelson's four birdie finish. This was Stenson's best performance in a
major championship, bettering his two previous T3 finishes at the same championship. Stenson moved back inside the world's top 20 with this result. Stenson finished runner-up again the following month at the
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational behind
Tiger Woods. He moved up to 11th in the world rankings after that result. In the year's next major championship, the
2013 PGA Championship, Stenson contended again on Sunday, teeing off in the penultimate group, with fellow country-man
Jonas Blixt, two strokes behind the leader
Jim Furyk. Despite an eagle on the par-5 fourth hole that moved him to within one stroke of the leaders, Stenson was never quite able to build any momentum in an even-par round that included four bogeys. He finished alone in third place, three strokes behind the champion
Jason Dufner. Stenson moved up one place in the world rankings to move back inside the world's top ten. Stenson's good form continued into the
2013 FedEx Cup Playoffs, when he won the
Deutsche Bank Championship by two strokes over runner-up,
Steve Stricker. It was the Swede's first PGA Tour victory in over three years. He tied the tournament record of −22 en route to his third career PGA Tour win. The win vaulted him into first place in the
FedEx Cup standings just ahead of
Tiger Woods. On 22 September 2013, Stenson won
The Tour Championship at
East Lake Golf Club and the
FedEx Cup. He also tied his career best OWGR ranking of 4th. He then moved up to a career best 3rd in the OWGR ranking on 3 November 2013. He finished the 2013 season ranked first on the PGA Tour in greens in regulation, first in ball striking, second among money leaders, third in total driving, fourth in scoring average, and seventh in driving accuracy percentage. a "historic double". Stenson described his feat as a "double-double" because in the process of winning these two seasonal points crowns, he also won the season finales of both tours (the
Tour Championship and the
DP World Tour Championship, Dubai). He was later named
European Tour Golfer of the Year. In May 2014, Stenson reached a career high ranking of number two in the world, trailing only
Adam Scott. On the PGA Tour, Stenson achieved career-best finishes at the Masters (T14) and U.S. Open (T4) while tying a career-best finish at the PGA Championship (T3). In Europe he won for the second time the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai and recorded 2nd places at the
Volvo World Match Play Championship and
BMW International Open, en route to a final 2nd place in the Race to Dubai, behind the winner
Rory McIlroy. In 2015, Stenson did not win any professional tournaments but made the cut in all 16 PGA Tour events he entered. He scored four runner-up finishes, including three over the final month of the season. A week later, he became the fourth two-time winner of the
BMW International Open and the first to win the event at two different locations (at the Golfclub München Eichenried in 2006; at the Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof in 2016). The 2016 win at the tournament marked his 10th career win on the European Tour. Stenson won the
2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon for his first major title. Before this win, he had achieved eight top 6-finishes in majors, without a win. He held the 54-hole lead going into the final round with a margin of one stroke over
Phil Mickelson. The pair played together during the third round and finished it by being six and five shots ahead of the field respectively, setting up a final head-to-head duel on Sunday. Stenson shot a 63 in the final round to tie
Johnny Miller for the best ever final round of a major winner. His overall score of 264 set a record for the lowest score in any major championship. Stenson finished three shots ahead of Mickelson and 14 shots ahead of third-place finisher
J. B. Holmes. Stenson became the first male Swede to win a major. In August, Stenson represented Sweden at the
2016 Summer Olympics, where he won the silver medal; entering the final hole of the competition he was level with the eventual winner
Justin Rose, but bogeyed the last hole while Rose made his birdie putt to win by two strokes. Had Stenson won, he would have claimed victories on all six continents on which golf is played, a feat Rose with the Olympic win, joined
Hall of Fame members
Gary Player,
David Graham,
Hale Irwin and
Bernhard Langer. Stenson won an automatic selection for the
2016 Ryder Cup at the
Hazeltine National Golf Club in
Chaska, Minnesota. In the competition he earned 2 points for Europe in 5 matches, winning the Friday fourball with
Justin Rose by 5 and 4 against
Jordan Spieth and
Patrick Reed, and his single match against Spieth by 3 and 2. In November 2016, Stenson won the Race to Dubai for a second time. Stenson led the European Tour in scoring average (69.14) for the first time in his career in 2016, which he has declared his best overall year to date. In December, Stenson was named European Tour Golfer of the Year for the second time in his career. In August 2017, Stenson broke the aggregate scoring record at the
Wyndham Championship (258), en route to winning the tournament by one stroke over
Ollie Schniederjans. At the
2018 Masters Tournament, Stenson finished tied for fifth place after 4 even rounds of 69, 70, 70 and 70 with total score −9. This result meant that he has managed to finish in the top 5 at all four major championships in his career. He also finished tied for sixth at the U.S. Open. He did not win any tournaments in an otherwise up-and-down year in which he faced several nagging injuries. However, Stenson rebounded with one of the finest performances of his career at the
2018 Ryder Cup. He went 3–0–0 in his matches to join
Francesco Molinari as the only players in the combined 24-man field to finish the event undefeated and untied. In the Sunday singles matches of the event, Stenson defeated
Bubba Watson 5 & 4 with six birdies and no bogey through fourteen holes, and tied
Tony Finau with best score relative to par at 6-under. Being plagued by elbow injury during the 2018 season, Stenson underwent a minor procedure on his elbow, causing him to miss
WGC-HSBC Champions. In 2018, he managed to lead the PGA Tour in both driving accuracy and greens in regulation. It was for the first time someone has led the PGA Tour in both these stats since
Calvin Peete did it for three straight seasons in 1981, 1982 and 1983. In December 2019, Stenson won the
Hero World Challenge by one stroke over
Jon Rahm. It was his first tournament win in more than two years. In June, 2022, he finished tied-second and tied best male player at the
Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, a mixed tournament, co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Ladies European Tour, at
Halmstad GC, Sweden, with men and women playing from different tees, nine strokes behind winner
Linn Grant, who became the first female winner on the
European Tour. The tournament was hosted by Stenson and
Annika Sörenstam.
Removed from Ryder Cup captaincy On 15 March, 2022, Stenson was announced as the
2023 European
Ryder Cup captain. In July, it was confirmed that Stenson had been removed from his position as European Ryder Cup captain, due to his imminent signing with
LIV Golf. Stenson would have been the first Swedish Ryder Cup captain and became the first apointed captain removed from his poisition before entering the match.
LIV Golf Series In his first appearance in the
LIV Golf Invitational Series at
Bedminster in July 2022, Stenson won by two strokes from
Dustin Johnson and
Matthew Wolff. On 22 September 2022, the
Swedish Golf Federation announced it was ending its partnership with Henrik Stenson, because of his relations with
LIV Golf. In May, 2023, it was announced that Stenson had resigned his membership of the
European Tour, having been subject to multiple fines and suspension from the tour for playing without a conflicting event release.
Returning to the European Tour Despite being one of the captains of team Majestetics GC, Stenson was forced to leave LIV Golf after finishing 49th on the
2025 LIV Golf League. Stenson declared that he had paid his fines to the European Tour and during 2026 intended to play the
Senior PGA Championship at
The Concession GC,
Bradenton, Florida, and the
Senior Open Championship at
Gleneagles, Scotland, as well as at least one tournament on the European Tour. ==Awards and honors==