Rookie sensation Spieth – who was ranked 810th after missing the cut in his first event of 2013, but has now jumped to 21st – closed with an eight-birdie 64 despite stumbling towards the end of the round and finished in a tie for second with the PGA Tour’s most fashionable part-timer, Steve Stricker, at 10-under.
Webb Simpson carded the round of the day with a 63 to locked up fourth place at nine under, a stroke clear of Dustin Johnson.
Having been pushed back to second in the FedEx Cup standings by Stenson’s brilliance heading into the Tour Championship, Tiger Woods couldn’t get anything going before closing with a three-under 67 to finish a distant tie for 22nd.
The final round would boil down to Stenson and his ability to hold his form and his nerve, with the prospect of an incredible pot of gold at the end of the rainbow looming over him. "That was the hard bit – to put everything aside, as always, and focus on the right things,” said Stenson, who earned US$1.44 million for the win. “I didn't play my best round today, but I was hanging in there, took the right decisions."
Stenson’s meteoric rise boils down to the culmination of a lot of hard work on both the physical and mental sides of his game with coach Pete Cowen and sports psychologist Torsten Hansson, after falling from a career-high ranking of fourth following his win at the Players Championship in 2009.
Pages
Click here to see the published article.
