Henrik Stenson is delighted to be back in action at this week's WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational as he makes his first competitive start since March.
Ryder Cup star Stenson returned to his native Sweden after the season was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic and while he has played plenty of golf in the last couple of months, this week's World Golf Championships event at TPC Southwind is his first tournament for quite some time.
"It's exciting," said Stenson, who played alongside Norwegian Viktor Hovland in the weather-affected FedEx Cares Charity Challenge on Wednesday. "We'll see how much rust we need to shake here in the next couple of hours or days or months.
"But yeah, with everything, we went back to Sweden. The family always goes back in the summertime when school's out.
"And I was in a bit of a decision-making there if I was going to stay on my own all summer and decided not to do that.
"Then having some time in Sweden with the family, I enjoyed that. I guess it's been very much a different year for everyone. At least trying to see the positives, that's been a bit more time at home than we normally have the chance to have, so I enjoyed that part.
"Now I'm excited to be back playing, see the boys and see if we can make a few birdies along the way.
"I've been practising in Orlando here for a little bit before coming up to Memphis, and I've probably been playing as much social golf as I've ever done here in the last couple of months.
"It's not full-on competition. Once you start working on your game, sometimes you kind of go backwards a little bit before you go forward as well, so I've been working with Pete (Cowen) and Phil Kenyon and the guys on my team here for a while.
"We'll just see in the next couple of days where we're at and try and build a bit of momentum going forward."
Had the Olympic Games not been postponed, Stenson would have been playing his opening round in Tokyo on Thursday.
Stenson, who secured the silver medal in 2016, has reaffirmed his desire to tee it up in Japan at next summer's rearranged Games.
He added: "I hope we can play next year. Of course, I was locked in, so I have a spot this time around.
"Now I have to work hard again to make sure I get one for next year, because the rankings will keep on going.
"Yeah, I had a great time in Rio, obviously a good result, but the experience as a whole was really good, too. I would love to play in Japan."
