Stenson shot a 3-under 68 in Round 3 to pass Mickelson by one shot at Royal Troon.
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Keeping his press session short and sweet after a cold, occasionally wet day at Royal Troon, the 2013 Open victor offered a blunt assessment of what needs repairing heading into Sunday’s final round.
Stenson had to get up and down from a greenside bunker as Mickelson birdied the long 16th, but the American pulled his tee shot at 17 wide left while Stenson rattled in a birdie putt of 25 feet.
But for shot quality and lead changes and two stars of the game taking the other’s best shots and not flinching, this was about as good as the modern game has produced in quite a while. Danny Willett, this year’s Masters champion, started in the group before Spieth and racked up four bogeys on the front nine and two more on the back.
The 46-year-old American, bidding to become the oldest victor of the championship in the modern era, compiled a two-under-par 69 to finish with an overall 10-under tally of 132.
But for some reason on Saturday at Royal Troon, Phil couldn’t help himself. He shot 68 going toe-to-toe with Phil today, and that was an excellent performance.
This time Stenson has the upper hand from the off – his first 54-hole lead at a major – and only one man can bring him down. “I know he’s not going to back down, and I’m certainly going to try to not back down either. So it should be an exciting afternoon”. I don’t know why we ended up every second week together.
Links golf can deliver some unusual finishes, though this had all the trappings of a two-man race today. Like that, Stenson went from a cumulative 12-under par to 12, while Mickelson went from 12 to 11. But Stenson, who’s seeking his first-ever Major win, showed his mettle on the back nine, reeling off a series of pars.
His runner-up finish to Mickelson three years ago was not premised on anything like the set-up that has been laid out for the final round in South Ayrshire.
Rory McIlroy struggled to find any sort of consistency this evening at Royal Troon and carded a third round 73 to leave him 11 shots off the pace heading into the final round.
A birdie at the par-four 13th saw Mickelson move two clear, but he then bogeyed the par-three 15th, which Stenson holed in two to tie for the lead. “Some days it’s hard and it looks bad, like it did today”.
Rickie Fowler was in the mix until he found out the hard way, scoring a quadruple-bogey eight at the 11th hole.
Spieth made a fast start on Saturday with four birdies in the first seven holes but the gusty 20mph winds began to affect him and he dropped five strokes in seven holes to the 15th.
Everyone else felt like mere spectators. It was his highest position in a major. Another shot back was Andrew Johnston, the Englishman with a big belly and beard to match who goes by “Beef”.
He eventually signed off for a third-round even-par 71, respectable enough in more challenging conditions on the windswept Scottish coast – but not enough to avoid being grilled about his humbling miscue out of the rough of the par-4 12th.
It was unlikely to matter. He is trying to become the eighth player dating to Old Tom Morris in 1861 to win his first major after turning 40. He said Friday that having already won the Claret Jug in 2013 relieves much of the pressure that otherwise would come with being in the lead at the British Open. “I’d love to play the final round the way I did the first two and give myself a shot”.
“I thought it was a good round to back up the low round yesterday”, Mickelson said.
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Stenson holds the most slender of leads on 12-under par, with the American one stroke back. He hasn’t won another tournament since then, and at age 46, it appeared his time was running out.
