Henrik Stenson opens up about stripped Ryder Cup captaincy

Golf

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By Mark Cannizzaro

July 23, 2023 | 4:36pm

HOYLAKE, England — Hours before Brian Harman won the 151st British Open amidst a steady, soaking rain late Sunday afternoon at Royal Liverpool, the 2016 winner of the claret jug was finishing up a pretty respectable week at 3-under par to finish in a tie for 13th.

There was no fanfare around Henrik Stenson when he walked off 18, signed his card and quietly departed the grounds.

The affable 47-year-old Swede seems like more of an outsider these days than a celebrated former Open champion who overtook Phil Mickelson in an epic final-round duel that inspired Jack Nicklaus to write him a letter of admiration after watching it.

Stenson should be preparing for the Ryder Cup as the European captain with the biennial competition a mere two-plus months away in Rome. But it’s been a year ago this week that the European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe stripped Stenson of his captaincy when he announced he was joining LIV Golf.

He’s been persona non grata since Ryder Cup Europe officials undressed him in public, denouncing his decision to join LIV and replaced him with Luke Donald.

In an exclusive conversation with The Post, Stenson was melancholy over how the Ryder Cup captaincy experience ended, because he insisted he not only would have been able to fulfill his obligations as a captain while still playing LIV but that no one from the DP World Tour or Ryder Cup Europe would agree to sit down with him and talk.

“I’m just disappointed that with everything that came out, because there was a big willingness on my part to sit down and talk long before this thing got to where it got to,’’ Stenson said. “That’s my disappointment — that there were certain people, without naming names, that didn’t want to sit down and take those meetings.

“And, as a consequence, I feel like we ended up in all of this that could have been avoided. But we live and we learn.’’

What makes Stenson’s situation particularly awkward is that since all the of anti-LIV acrimony that made him arguably the biggest victim of the backlash against the Saudi-backed tour, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV have all jumped into bed together in an alliance that’s been vaguely termed “a framework agreement.’’

Yet, despite the sides all having agreed to coexist, Stenson remains in the same place he’s been for a year — hung out to dry, publicly stripped of captaincy duties he cherished taking on as a five-time Ryder Cup player.

“A lot of these decisions are not on my plate,’’ Stenson said of the alliance that was announced June 6. “We’ll see where it ends up — from Ryder Cup to memberships on DP World Tour and PGA Tour and all the rest of it. I’m just sitting…