By John Strege
Henrik Stenson busted out from a leader board logjam with a tap-in eagle at 15 and went on to win the Hero World Challenge on Saturday, his first victory of any sort in more than two years.

Stenson, 43, hit a 5-wood second shot on the par-5 15th at Albany in New Providence, Bahamas, to less than a foot of the hole, the defining shot of a round of six-under-par 66 to defeat Jon Rahm by one and Patrick Reed by two. He completed 72 holes in 18-under par 270.

“I found some good momentum after the tournament was finished in Dubai,” he said of the European Tour’s DP World Tour Championship. “I kept on working hard and grinding it out. I came in with a better feeling.

“Obviously the shot of the day was that 5-wood to a couple of inches on 15, so I was very pleased about that.”

Stenson began the back nine tied for the lead with tournament host Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas. But Woods played the back nine in even par, shot a 69 and finished fourth, while Thomas played the back in one-over, shot a 70 and tied for fifth.

The last time Stenson won on either the PGA Tour or the European Tour was in August 2017, the Wyndham Championship. Once the second-ranked player in the world, he had fallen to 40th in the ranking before this victory.

Rahm, seeking to add a third straight victory to conclude his year six days before getting married, held the lead until Stenson’s eagle bumped him aside. Reed, meanwhile, made five birdies in a bogey-free back nine to at least give himself a chance.