Henrik Stenson has spoken to one of the head rules officials at The Open after what happened during his third round

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Henrik Stenson made the cut at The Open Championship this week, for only the second time since 2019.

Stenson, the 2016 Open champion, has fallen off the golfing map over the past few years, after he joined LIV Golf from the PGA Tour in 2022.

So his decent showing at Royal Portrush this week would have been a timely boost for him.

Stenson’s incredible duel with Phil Mickelson at The Open at Royal Troon went down in the history books as one of the greatest major final rounds of all time.

However, the good times have been few and far between since then for the big Swede.

And it seemed like he may have been involved in somewhat of a problem out on the golf course at Royal Portrush on Saturday afternoon.

Henrik Stenson spoke to head rules official at The Open after his third round

Stenson is an extremely straight shooter.

So when he took a long time to emerge from the scorers’ tent after his round, journalists on site at Portrush would have been licking their lips.

Stenson was asked by reporters why he took so long in the scorers’ tent after his third round at The Open on Saturday.

He said: “It was just I spoke to Mark, who was one of the head rules officials. We got a warning on the 10th green that we were three minutes out, so five minutes over the allotted time frame. I joked with the other guys for after the first two days, first round took about an hour over the allotted time. Second round was four to five minutes over. I said, we just have to wait until halfway through Saturday or Sunday and someone is going to come up to you and say that you’re two minutes over and they’re going to start pushing you on. That’s exactly what happened.

“We tried to make up some time —“

Journalist: “Was that after the joke that that happened?“

Stenson: “Yeah, that was yesterday. I made the joke yesterday. Then on 10 today, sure enough, the first rules official came up and said that we were a couple minutes over and we had to try to close that gap. We tried really hard in the group, but then 14 took a bit of extra time. We both made bogey there. Then they started putting us on the clock on 15. When you’re almost done, it’s not really going to make a huge difference. So it was more I wanted to vent that with him.

“I think if you can play an hour over time scheduled in one day, then and all of a sudden two minutes is of huge importance the next day, it feels a bit inconsistent to me.“

Journalist: “Did that put you off a bit?“

Stenson: “It always puts — I don’t get affected too much, but it certainly — we were already trying to play quick to make up whatever we had lost earlier in the round. Sebastian had a bad hole on No. 8. Yeah, we were a couple of minutes behind there, but you just don’t want to play on the clock. Even though you don’t feel like — I certainly don’t feel like I’m a slow player these days, and you just don’t feel like you can — it’s like you can take 30 seconds on one shot, 40 on another one, and you might take 52 on another one and you’re still kind of averaging it out, but if you’re on the clock, you’re going to get noted if you take 52 on one.

“I don’t think it matters how quick you are as a player, you don’t want to be on the clock because, especially out here, if you miss one in the wrong place, you want to go up and check and this and that, and that clocks starts ticking. I’d prefer not to play on the clock. Yeah, we’re having some discussions on that.“

Henrik Stenson’s Open record

The LIV golfer has a very impressive record at The Open.

Here is how his numbers look after 20 appearances at golf’s oldest and most prestigious tournament:

Whilst he most likely won’t be adding another top-10 to his tally this week, a made cut is a fine effort, given his recent form.

Stenson will be proud of his efforts at The Open this week, especially after having to deal with being put on the clock during his third round.