Henrik Stenson blamed a lack of preparation, the fact that he hits the ball straight, and his inability to exploit the par-fives as the cause for his magical run finally coming to an end as he missed the cut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Friday.
The world No3 was disappointed he could not live up to his billing as the pre-tournament favourite after a round of level-par 72 left the Swede two over for the tournament, and two shots adrift of the cut line.
“What it means is that I can finally get a weekend off,” joked Stenson, who hasn’t missed a cut since Quail Hollow in May last year.
“But seriously, the real problem for me this week was that I didn’t make any birdies on the par fives. The scoring on the rest of the holes is not too bad.
"My preparations were a little bit on the short side, I said that earlier and the rough is extremely thick and you can’t really play any shots out of the rough. It just gives way, and any time you’re missing the fairway, it’s a big struggle to make par.
“It’s also a tough course for me to hit a lot of fairways, because you’re coming across on the angles on most of them.
“I’m more of a straight‑baller when I play well, and here, you need to try and shape it into the holes a lot more than I do.”
Stenson will now spend a couple of days practicing before heading off to Doha to compete in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
“I expected myself to be a bit rusty,” said Stenson. “These three weeks, I’m just looking forward to getting some good practice in. I have not had an unplanned day off for more than six months, so maybe I can look at the bright side and have a day off and chill.”
Other high-profile players who missed the cut included Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and 2012 champion Robert Rock.
