Defending FedEx Cup champion Henrik Stenson goes low, shoots up Barclays leaderboard

Henrik Stenson seems to take this whole PGA Tour playoff thing seriously.

The defending FedEx Cup champion got off to a lackadaisical 1-over 72 start on Thursday at The Barclays, the first of four events in the playoff series, but came roaring back with a 64 in the second round to pounce into the heat of the battle heading into the weekend.

Stenson, who last year became the first player to come out on top in both the season-ending U.S. run of tourneys and the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, got off to a blistering, birdie-birdie start on the 10th and 11th holes on Friday. After a bogey on the par-4 14th, the 12-time PGA and Euro Tour winner went on a birdie barrage, banging home three in a row on 15, 16 and 17 before making the turn at 4-under 32.

Three more birds on a flawless back nine put him one shot off the pace of clubhouse leader Kevin Chappell.

Stenson, right up there with Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker among the “best players never to win a major,” may be most renowned for his short fuse and tighty-whities.

There was that offending iron at the 2011 U.S. Open that fought back when Stenson suffered a boo-boo from the shards of his shaft.

The landscaping at Augusta was not to Stenson’s liking during the 2012 Masters.

More recently, Stenson smashed the head of his driver into the turf at last year’s BMW Championship, after which he proceeded to redecorate the locker room — not even a week after winning the Deutsche Bank Championship. It was a wedge that bore the brunt of Stenson’s frustration in the first round of this year’s British Open.

“Sometimes, when my head gets rocky, my patience gets thin. Sometimes I have to let the steam out,” Stenson told Golf Digest’s Franz Lidz with a laugh. “Sometimes it happens that a club head gets separated from its shaft ... I’ve retired a few clubs in my time.”

And of course there was that time during the 2009 WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral when Stenson took the mystery out of briefs or boxers to hit a ball from the muck.

“I was only wearing two things when I hit the shot, my jocks and my golf glove,” Stenson said afterward, “just the way God created me.”

It’s not surprising that the 38-year-old Swede gained more prominence from his antics than his scorecard, given that after winning the 2009 Players Championship and reaching No. 4 in the world rankings, money and health issues contributed to his plummeting to 230th.

There was the loss of up to $7 million when federal investigators shut down his sponsor, Stanford Financial Group, for operating a Ponzi scheme. Pneumonia and a waterborne parasite took their toll as well.

It would appear Stenson’s wallet has made it all the way back, thanks to hitting the $10 million jackpot for winning the FedEx and banking the $1 million Race to Dubai bonus. Stenson’s total earnings for last year came out to about $20 million.

Now third in the world, Stenson entered the week after finishing third in the PGA Championship but ranked 70th in FedEx Cup points and in need of a strong performance to stay in the top 100, who will move on to next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.

A second-round 64 would seem to secure Stenson’s spot at TPC Boston over Labor Day weekend.