Introduced to golf by a family friend as a teenager, Swede Henrik Stenson was already a scratch handicapper by the time he was 18 and represented his country as an amateur.

Having turned professional in 1998, Henrik Stenson struggled to make his mark at first but finished on top of the Challenge Tour rankings in 2000, having accumulated three victories and five other top-10 finishes that year.

The following year he claimed the Benson & Hedges International Open, the first of six events he has won on the Tour. However, it is Henrik Stenson's astonishing consistency rather than victories - that has won him a place in the last two Ryder Cup sides, not to mention the fact that he has been in the Order of Merit top 10 for the last four years.

Having won the Dubai Desert Classic in 2007, three weeks later Henrik Stenson took the WGC-Accenture World Match play title when beating Geoff Ogilvy 2&1 in the final. He relishes golf in a matchplay format where his steady nerve always comes into play.

In 2008 Henrik Stenson secured top-five finishes in both the Open Championship and the US PGA, and won the World Cup with compatriot Robert Karlsson before ending the year on a high when taking the valuable Nedbank Challenge.

Henrik Stenson caused a storm when stripping to his boxer shorts to play a shot out of a muddy bog in the first round of the WGC-CA Championship early in 2009.

Henrik Stenson now lives with his wife and young daughter in Dubai, and plays golf less often in the US than many of his European counterparts at the head of the world rankings.