By John Tully-Jackson
Henrik Stenson hopes that his strong EurAsia Cup finish in Malaysia last week helps him to prove 13 is not an unlucky number at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

It will be the 13th consecutive year that the Swede has ventured out on the National links, yet he has been unable to claim the illustrious Falcon trophy thus far.

Despite holding the course record, a 10 under 62 in the inaugural playing of the event in 2006 when he finished a shot behind winner Chris DiMarco in his best Abu Dhabi effort, it will be no stroll for the Iceman. With a field boasting the World Number 1 Dustin Johnson, golf’s hottest player of the moment Justin Rose, and the returning juggernaut Rory McIlroy, the shootout in the desert packs plenty of firepower.

The World No. 9 was quick to admit that the 2017 season wasn’t his finest.

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“When you have a great run like I had in 2013 and 2016, it takes a lot out of you mentally more than anything, energy levels get eaten away at all the time and your calendar gets more and more busy… I kind of feel the same on both occasions that the steam kind of runs out a little bit, and last year it did for me.”

Despite the 2016 Open Champion ‘running out of steam’ he still managed a win at the Wyndham Championship for his fourth regular season PGA Tour title.

“I’m still pretty happy with my ’17 season. I think it was about 20 guys who accumulated more World Ranking points, so if you’re not quite up to speed over the year and still can stay around those numbers, I think you’ve done it pretty good.”

In preparation for the Desert Swing and September’s Ryder Cup in Paris, the three-wood specialist played in the EurAsia Cup. Despite losing his first match to an opposition that produced a terrifying 11 birdies in 14 holes, Stenson rallied to win his Saturday foursomes match with Tommy Fleetwood and his singles 2&1 over Hideto Tanihara on Sunday.

“Yeah, had a fun week in Kuala Lumpur last week with the rest of the team. As you know, we don’t get to play that much team golf, so it’s always good fun when those chances arise. It gives you a chance to see where your game is at early on and what to work on and so on from there.

“So that’s always good to start out the year that way, and I’ve done that in the past when we had the Royal Trophy going. I played that on I think five occasions, and a lot of times I came here and played really well in The Desert Swing after that.”

When the subject of the upcoming Ryder Cup was raised, Stenson signalled his intent to represent Europe at Le Golf National in September. The satirical Swede has an impressive record in the Transatlantic showdown, having great success while partnered with man-of-the-moment Justin Rose.

When questioned if Tommy Fleetwood could be the new Englishman he calls partner, Stenson replied with his usual drollery.

“Of course I’d hoped for both Justin and myself to be there in Paris and continuing our great partnership. But I really enjoyed playing with Tommy last week and I definitely see that as a possible pairing as well, if we both make it there. You know, Justin is not a spring chicken anymore, so he might need to rest a round, so maybe I could play with Tommy.”