The Loop

Henrik Stenson has a message for whoever robbed his rental house, but left his dirty laundry

July 21, 2017
146th Open Championship - Day Two

Matthew Lewis/R&A

SOUTHPORT, England -- Henrik Stenson was understandably angry when he found out his rental house this week at the 146th British Open had been burglarized. But the fit Swede was also disappointed he wasn't there when the culprit(s) arrived. Perhaps if he had been around to flash his famous on-course steely stare, things would have gone down differently.

Instead, Stenson stared at a throng of reporters following a Friday 73 that dropped him to T-24 (two over) at Royal Birkdale and did a pretty admirable job of addressing an unfortunate situation with his standard dry wit.

"Actually they missed my carry-on, so I still have my stuff," Stenson said. "If they're listening, they didn't get the full jackpot, but they got obviously a lot of valuables, watches and other things."

Thankfully, "they" also didn't get the claret jug, which Stenson returned earlier in the week, and they left Stenson a bag of dirty laundry so he was able to "wash some of it up" before his second round (He's also sponsored by Hugo Boss -- one of the tournament's sponsors -- so we're pretty sure they've got him covered). But it's the stolen clothes that has the defending Open champ convinced they knew who he was -- and has left him vowing to be more cautious about him disclosing his whereabouts via social media in the future.

"They were clearly targeting me, because they were there when I was out playing, and they figured out that the house was empty when I was away, and they stole all my gear. Normally I don't think burglars would take clothes. That doesn't feel like the normal kind of thing that you would take," Stenson reasoned. "But all my gear is gone. If you see people Bossed up in this way, feel free to ask what they were doing between 12 and 4 yesterday."

Stenson, who claimed the incident didn't affect his play on Friday, also joked he'll be doing some investigating himself.

"I'll be out there looking tonight."