W ell, that's it for the winter.

And for the winter, I really mean for two days. By the time your bleary eyes have scanned a weary path over those few words, the 2014 European Tour season will be under way in South Africa and we'll all be huffing and puffing again like a flustered glass blower with haemorrhoids trying to churn out an order of ornamental vases.

There used to be a tranquil period in the dim and distant past when the golf stopped and you could sit back, rake over the coals and take stock. These days, the schedule hurtles on with all the unstoppable momentum of a plummeting parachutist who has forgotten to pack the bare essentials of his trade. In this relentless era, there's hardly time to draw breath let alone tug frantically at a malfunctioning ripcord.

This week, the South African Open gets the new, 48-event campaign up and running and there will be five contests shoehorned into the calendar before Santa even starts pondering going to work. Interestingly, almost a year ago to the day, the all-conquering Henrik Stenson won that aforementioned tournament in the Rainbow Nation. Some 12 months on, the resurgent Swede has got his hands on the pots of gold that are supposed to sit at the end of those colourful meteorological phenomenons. And those have been worth over £12m in 2013.

That particular win in South Africa, his first European Tour triumph in three years, certainly acted as a springboard to greater things. But, in the grand tradition of sticking a kilt on global golfing escapades, it was his third place finish in July's Scottish Open at Castle Stuart that began a quite astonishing four-month spell of consistency and conquests for the likeable 37-year-old.

"I just feel like it's a work in progress," said Stenson during his summer stop-off in the Highlands. Today, he is the finished article. Sunday's six-shot romp in the DP Tour World Championship, in which he became the first man to win both the European circuit's Race to Dubai and the US PGA Tour's FedEx Cup in the same year, was the crowning glory of a stellar season. His rampaging demolition job in the desert was an illustration of a player in complete control of all his golfing senses, mentally and technically, and his masterful display, which blew away the cream of the European Tour, has raised the bar.

Take a quick glance at his record over the past 16 weeks or so and it's easy to understand why many of his peers have described him as the "best player on the planet right now". Third at Castle Stuart, second in the following week's Open at Muirfield, second in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, third in the US PGA Championship, first in the Deutsche Bank Championship, first in the Tour Championship and first in Dubai. These are the kind of profitable, uplifting runs that separate the best from the rest.

A year ago he was 117th in the world rankings. At the start of 2012 he was languishing down in 230th. Throw in the jaw-shuddering financial losses he suffered in the Allen Stanford scandal and you could have been forgiven if you thought you'd never see hide nor hair of Stenson again at the sharp end of affairs. Against a backdrop of professional and personal misfortunes, his rise back up to third in the global pecking order has been made all the more captivating. It's been the kind of comeback that would have had Lazarus politely applauding by the greenside.

Since joining the paid ranks in 1998, Stenson has won at every level of the professional game except the majors. Given the way he has performed this year, he's probably wishing that the Masters was this week after being the master of all he surveyed recently. He'll have to wait until April for a crack at the green jacket, of course, but he's in no rush.

"That just gives me more time to practise and prepare," he said as he afforded himself a keek into the future. What this golfing future holds is anyone's guess but, from a European perspective, Stenson's renaissance bodes well. A place in Paul McGinley's Ryder Cup team for Gleneagles is all but secured and an assault on a maiden major crown is the next target.

With the wealth of talent that has emerged from Sweden, and Scandinavia in general, over the years it is still something of a surprise that a male golfer from that neck of the woods - Annika Sorenstam won 10 women's majors - has yet to lift one of the biggest prizes. Jesper Parnevik was second in the Open twice, in 1994 and 1997, and Stenson has been knocking on the door. As well as that runners-up finish in the Open in July, he was third in 2008 and 2010 while his record in the PGA Championship, in addition to his podium placing this year, includes a sixth and a fourth.

At 37, Stenson has enjoyed the finest season of his career but there is surely plenty more to come.