Until this year only two continental Europeans had finished number one on the European Tour on more than one occasion: Severiano Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer. Now there are three, after Henrik Stenson carded a closing 65 in the DP World Tour Championship to secure his second Race to Dubai title (after 2013). Earlier this year, Stenson had also become the first Swede to win a major championship, the British, and he won the silver medal at the Olympics.
“I'm very pleased to get my name on this trophy once again,” he said. “It's been a great year, the best year of my career. I've always thought it was going to be hard to top 2013, but I think I've done that this year. Maybe not to the level of golf over six months, but certainly with the highlights of winning The Open, the Olympics and managed to win the Race to Dubai again. So it's been a great year and it feels lovely to finish in this way.”
Recalling the names on the Harry Vardon Trophy awarded to the European Tour number one, he added, “We've got Ballesteros, we've got Langer, we've got Faldo, and then of course in the later years we're more familiar with the names who won it; and Norman is on there. It shows a lot of history. To win it once is very satisfying and to win it two times is even more. So a lovely season, and it is great to top it off like this.”
His win also resolved an issue with trophy cabinets back home. “I'm very pleased because I've got two DP World Tour Championships and I've got two Race to Dubai titles. I have my home in Sweden and I have my home in America, so I can spread it out and make it look good in both places.”
The other main prize on the last day of the season went to Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick, who holed a nerve-wrecking putt at the 18th to win the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai by a single shot. He had trailed Tyrrell Hatton by one shot on the 18th tee but Hatton bogeyed the last, and Fitzpatrick’s birdie took him to 17-under and his third European Tour title.
