The Loop

Henrik Stenson isn't the only top player to experience a career-threatening slump

September 03, 2013

Much has been made of Henrik Stenson's revival after his victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday. It was a big week for the Swede; after a T-21 finish at the U.S. Open, Stenson only finished outside the top-3 once in his next four events, including second- and third-place finishes in the British Open and PGA, respectively.

All that brought him to sixth place in the World Golf Ranking -- not bad when considering he was languishing at 230th in the World Rankings at the start of 2012, his career plagued by a wicked case of the driver yips.

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__#1 Tiger Woods__Tiger has still yet to win a major since his historic 2008 U.S. Open victory at Torrey Pines, but his real slump spanned from 2010 through 2011. Tiger went winless in those two seasons, boasted consecutive WD's from the Players Championship, and finished 112th and 132nd in the FedEx Cup point standings.

#2 Adam Scott Scott may now be one of the undisputed best players in the world, but back in 2009, he was nearly dubbed as one who never fulfilled his potential. After a T-2 at the Sony Open at the start of the year, Scott went on to miss 10 cuts in his next 17 events, including a streak of six straight.

__#4 Justin Rose__When Justin Rose turned pro a day after his T-4 finish at the 1998 British Open, he went on to miss the cut in his next 21 consecutive events before earning his European Tour card the following year. "It was a pretty traumatic start to my pro career," Rose said of his slump.

__#5 Rory McIlroy__No one's really sure what a Rory McIlroy slump looks like, because he looked to be in a slump right up until he won the 2012 PGA Championship by record margins. Either way, with only five top 10s in 2013, no wins and sitting at 55th in the FedEx Cup standings through two playoff events, we're pretty sure he's in one now.

__#7 Matt Kuchar__After winning the U.S. Amateur in 1997, Kuchar finished T-21 and T-14 in his first two majors as an amateur and nabbed his first PGA Tour win in 2002. But it would take him seven years to win his second, during which time he lost his status on the PGA Tour.

__#10 Steve Stricker__It's fair to say Stricker had two slumps. The first, in 1997, the year after two wins and seven top threes, amounted in just one top 10. Then, after winning the 2001 Accenture Match Play Championship, Stricker went six years until his next win and had to play his way back on to the PGA Tour after losing his card in 2004.