BMW Masters: Kick-Off European Tour Final Series. US-Tour Champion Henrik Stenson continues his assault on the “Race to Dubai” in Shanghai. After many ups and downs, the Swede is back on top of his game.

Munich/Shanghai. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson is currently the hottest player in world golf. The 37-year-old, whose calm and collected style on the course belies a wicked sense of humour, has been has been enjoying a fine run of form that has produced top results at a number of prestigious tournaments. The icing on the cake came at the end of September: Stenson won the TOUR Championship in dominant fashion to claim his second PGA TOUR Playoff title of the season and win the FedExCup. He is now a good ten million US dollars better off and widely regarded as the best golfer in the world at present – and all that just two years after the BMW International Open winner had dropped outside the top 200 in the world rankings.

Stenson will now tee off at the 2013 BMW Masters (24th to 27th October, Lake Malaren Golf Club) as “European Tour Golfer of the Month” for August and September. Stenson is just one of a truly world-class field, including world number six Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), defending champion Peter Hanson (Sweden), Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland), Lee Westwood (England), Ian Poulter (England) and local favourite Wu-Ashun (China), who will kick off the European Tour’s new “Final Series” in Shanghai.

“BMW tournaments are always fun. Organising tournaments around the world to the highest possible standard is by no means an easy task. However, I would say that BMW do this better than anyone,” Stenson said. “I am very much looking forward to the BMW Masters, just as I do every BMW tournament. In June, I enjoyed a great week in Munich, where the BMW International Open celebrated its 25th anniversary. In September, I was importantly able to defend my place in the top five of the FedExCup at the BMW Championship in Chicago, which laid the foundation for my triumph in Atlanta. They were both fantastic tournaments, and I also have fond memories of last year’s BMW Masters. I think it is excellent that we now have a kind of Playoff feel on the European Tour, in the form of the Final Series. And I obviously hope I can continue where I left off at the Playoffs on the PGA TOUR.”

Eckhard Wannieck, Head of BMW International Sponsorship, Cooperation and Product Placement, said: “Firstly, I would like to congratulate Henrik Stenson on his fantastic success. The fact that he is the first European ever to win the FedExCup underlines his outstanding performance. He has teed off at so many BMW tournaments that he is a well-established member of the BMW Golfsport family. Henrik is a magnificent golfer, a likeable sportsman, and a colourful character. He thoroughly deserves this success. His participation in the BMW Masters will help ensure that the crowds, media and sponsors enjoy the highest possible standard of golf. We are very much looking forward to it.”

Stenson’s results since July speak for themselves: runner-up at the Open Championship, tied second at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, third at the PGA Championship, wins at the Deutsche Bank Championship and TOUR Championship, as well as a 43rd place at the Barclays and 33rd at the BMW Championship. The experts are agreed: Stenson was a worthy winner of this year’s FedExCup and fully deserved his success.

Stenson is enjoying the second, if not third, spring of his career. In 2006 he had won the season-opening Qatar Masters and travelled to the BMW Asian Open – the predecessor to the BMW Masters – as one of the top 15 players in the world. In Shanghai, he lost out to Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño in a play-off, but went on to make amends at the BMW International Open a few months later, when he defeated no less than Retief Goosen and Padraig Harrington. He followed that success with wins at the 2007 WGC-Matchplay Championship and, two years later, the Players Championship. That saw Stenson climb as high as number four in the world rankings for the first time.

What followed was a long fall from grace, with the Swede unable to add another victory until the South African Open in 2012. His world ranking had fallen as low as 224 at the start of last year, and Stenson only returned to the top 50 in March 2013. All this makes the outstanding way he emphatically won the PGA TOUR even more impressive: Stenson ended the season with 4,750 points, giving him a mighty lead of 2,007 points over world number one Tiger Woods.

It goes almost without saying that Stenson also leads the Race to Dubai. The BMW Masters heralds the business end of the European Tour, the new “Final Series”. Given his Playoff form, the opposition will not be too pleased to hear Stenson say: “The Final Series is obviously next on the horizon. I can take a bit of a break now, before I head out to the BMW Masters. I am in a great position to win the Race to Dubai. Justin (Rose) and Graeme (McDowell) are chasing me down there, it's going to take some good play. I'm going to try my hardest to accomplish that. No one's won the FedExCup and the Race to Dubai. Of course, we're going to give that our next shot.” Golf fans can look forward to a charging Henrik Stenson and a high-class start to the Final Series at the BMW Masters.

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