Stenson & Karlsson: Swedish stars

I wonder if Nick Faldo was watching Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson's final round at the World Cup last Sunday.

I still don't know why Nick didn't pair them together as a foursomes partnership at the Ryder Cup because in my mind the Swedish superstars were a nailed-on pairing for Valhalla - and yet they didn't get a game together until the fourballs on the second afternoon.

Last Sunday at the Olazabal course at Mission Hills, we witnessed a simply stunning round of 63 from the Swedes to overhaul a four-shot deficit and take the title. Perhaps we also saw one of the reasons why we didn't bring home the Ryder Cup.

It's easy to look back with hindsight and say that partnership could have won Europe an awful lot of points - but it seemed to be an obvious pairing even before a club was swung at Valhalla.

After their performance at the weekend, you have to give both Karlsson and Stenson all the praise in the world. They are both incredibly fit, they are both fine athletes and they are both mentally strong. Sweden is a very patriotic nation and having only won the World Cup once before it was evidently a big tournament for them. They were one of the few teams that sent out their top two available players and that attitude paid dividends.

Humour

I know Henrik well from our time on the Tour together and he's a great guy. Like Karlsson he's very anglicised in his sense of humour and you saw how dry he was in his winners' speech when he said it was a massive day for him, but it was "just another win" for Robert!

There is some truth in what he was saying. He's had a good season, he finished seventh in the Order of Merit and he made the Ryder Cup team - but he hadn't won a tournament until last weekend.

This was the icing on the cake for his year and the small matter of $800,000 each won't have gone unnoticed either - although for these two millionaires it was all about the pride of taking the World Cup home to Sweden.

Looking to the future, I don't think Karlsson's magnificent season will rankle with Henrik at all. He's such a nice bloke that he'll be thrilled to bits for his fellow countryman and there won't be any jealousy there.

We're talking about a guy that has spent the bulk of his career at the top of the Order of Merit and I've no doubt that Henrik can contend for more titles next year. He's one of the supremely gifted players on the European Tour and on his day he can beat anybody in the world.

Form

He is in that bracket of players capable of winning the Race to Dubai, but that's subject to his short game and his putting being on form. We all know he's a great ball-striker, but he'll readily admit his putting sometimes lets him down.

I think Pete Cowen has done a magnificent job with his long game. When I was on Tour I remember seeing Henrik unable to hit the country he was in, let alone the golf course. You'd sometimes see him press the self-destruct button when he picked up a driver and he would end up way off line.

He was wild at times but under the tutorage of Pete Cowen he made the step up from being an average player to a world-class player. There's no doubt he can be a major champion and like Robert Karlsson, I think we will see him contending for those big four events next season.

In fact, I think we will see the pair of them dragging each other along and they will motivate each other to move on to even greater heights. I'm sure Karlsson was motivated by the season Stenson had in 2007 and who knows what we'll see from them in the forthcoming year?

Boom

Whatever happens, we are witnessing a real boom period for Swedish golf. The infrastructure over there in terms of junior and youth golf has been tremendous over the past few years.

If the Swedes are involved in a sport they research it and they do it properly. They make sure funding is in place to support their talent and in golf their success can be traced all the way back to a great motivator called Jan Blomqvist, who was heavily involved in establishing ways for golf to succeed in the country.

He was part of the 'Hello Sweden' programme which meant all of the Swedish pros had some financial support when they came out on Tour. That was the start of making sure everything was in place for their guys to succeed.

Success such does not happen by accident. You cannot deny the talent, work ethic, and mental strength of players like Stenson and Karlsson, but they also need the right coaching, the right instruction and the right opportunities.

They are now reaping the rewards in terms of talent and the sight of Sweden holding aloft that World Cup trophy is a tribute to the pioneers of Swedish golf.