How Henrik Stenson's mind coach helped him scale golf's highest peaks
Psychologist gave the Swede back his belief, culminating in dream season-ending double
Henrik Stenson's mind coach Torsten Hansson was a proud and happy man after having been in Dubai to witness his protégé accomplish the task of climbing "the world's highest golfing mountain".
A win at the 2009 Players Championship in Florida, seen by some as the sport's unofficial fifth major, took the Swede up to fourth in the world before he suffered the second big form slump of his career to crash out of the top 200.
Stenson decided to reunite with his former mind coach Hansson in 2012 and since then he has fought his way back to the top, culminating in last Sunday's historic six-shot triumph at the DP World Tour Championship in the Middle East.
Not only did the victory enable the former Ryder Cup player to finish the season as Europe's number one golfer, world number three Stenson also became the first man to land the Race To Dubai and US FedEx Cup double.
"I used a metaphor these last four days when we were working hard to try and get these titles that we were attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world," Hansson said after arriving back in his native Sweden.
"We had been struggling in the bushes and then the woods but then suddenly we could see above the tree tops and we could actually start climbing.