Wednesday 4 November 2015 10:31, UK
Henrik Stenson is refusing to rule out another late bid for Race to Dubai victory, despite heading in to this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions more than two million points behind current leader Rory McIlroy in the standings.
The world No 7 has yet to reach the winner's circle on either the European Tour or PGA Tour since winning last year's season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, but could still make an unlikely challenge for a second order of merit with a strong finish to the season.
Stenson is scheduled to compete in all three of the remaining Final Series events as he looks to move from his current position of 19th the standings, realistically needing to win two of those tournaments to have a chance of ending the season as Europe's No 1 for the second time in three years.
And while the Swede admits the odds of winning the Race to Dubai are against him, he feels he's still capable of giving those ahead of him something to think about over the coming weeks.
"It would be very nice to finish with a win, no question about it," Stenson told a pre-tournament press conference. "I managed to pull it off in Dubai in 2014.
"I think if I could finish off with at least one win in these last three tournaments I'm playing, then I would probably bump 2014 down a place and make this one the second best year.
"I'm still in with a very small chance of challenging for The Race to Dubai title. It's obviously very slim at this point, but I guess there is a chance of winning if I were to go silly in these three tournaments.
"Even if I'm unlikely to reach all the way to the top, I still want to try to have a good finish to this season and try to put a little bit of pressure on the guy at the top."
The Swede features alongside last year's winner Bubba Watson and world No 2 Jordan Spieth for the opening two rounds at Sheshan International, with Spieth able to overtake Jason Day at the top of the rankings by claiming a sixth win of the year.
Shane Lowry and Louis Oosthuizen, sitting third and fourth in the Race to Dubai standings, are grouped with former world No 1 Adam Scott in Shanghai, while Branden Grace is still hopeful of making a late push up the rankings.
"This is for us almost as big as a Major, so you definitely want to contend here," Grace said. "You've got the best players in the world again, so if you can beat them on a world stage like this then you know you're doing something right.
"I'm sixth on The Race to Dubai at the moment, so there's still a good chance of getting it done. You just need one good win or one good finish and then you're right up there. Then it is all to play for in the last two events.
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