Paired together in the final group, Stenson shot 68 to Mickelson’s 70 on Saturday at Troon.
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If Mickelson triumphs, he would be the seventh American in a row to win The Open at Royal Troon.
Henrik Stenson at the Open Championship.
That’s because Henrik Stenson shot one of the great rounds in major championship history with a 63 at Royal Troon to take the 145th Open Championship with a score of 264. His 10th birdie of the round gave him an 8-under 63 to match Johnny Miller for the lowest closing round by a major champion. A best-ball 7-under 29 on the front nine spoke volumes as to the remarkable and often spellbinding quality of golf on display. That next major opportunity comes at the USPGA Championship at Baltusrol in less than a fortnight’s time.
“I’m really proud to have done that, and it’s going to be massive for golf in Sweden with this win”, Stenson said. “The way I was able to hit fairways easily coming down the stretch and hit my iron shots right on line, draws and fades and so forth, and basically that comes from getting my swing back on plane”.
“But tee to green was good and I can only be positive going into Baltusrol”. It’s just disappointing for me to finish second, but we’ve got a great champ.
“I had the best seat in the house”. It cost him the fourth, and final, bogey of his two-over-par round.
The last birdie was for the record book.
Despite his graciousness in defeat, the 46-year-old admitted it was a tough pill to swallow. “I know he’s not going to back down, and I’m certainly going to try to not back down either”.
Jordan Spieth, after making the cut on the number, got off to a hot start Saturday morning with four birdies in the first seven holes. “I’m just going to try my hardest to keep him behind”.
The pairing of Stenson and Mickelson over the final 36 holes drew an obvious comparison with the 1977 Open on this same stretch of Ayrshire coast, when Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus fought their famous “Duel in the Sun” over a red-hot two days at neighbouring Turnberry.
Stenson, 40, produced a staggering display to record 10 birdies and two bogeys to beat the Open record of 19 under set by Tiger Woods in 2000, as well as firing only the second 63 in the final round of a major by the eventual victor after Johnny Miller in the 1973 US Open at Oakmont.
An eagle from the American at four left things all square, before another birdie from the eventual victor on the eighth saw him edge ahead once more. We got a best ball score of 59 on a Sunday when 67 by anyone looked like it would be outrageously good. “So I’m happy with the way I finished”.
J.B. Holmes won the B-Flight. All of them, as well as Steve Stricker, who’s another shot back, broke par Saturday but it will take something approaching a miracle for any of them to get past Mickelson and Stenson.
The Swede won his first major with precision. Beyond the score, the measure of his performance was that he putted for a birdie on every hole Sunday in a mild wind off the Irish Sea. He lost that lead on the next hole when Stenson had the first of three straight birdies.
They matched birdies and improbable par saves.
His 20-under total eclipsed Tiger Woods’ 19-under-par record total in winning The Open at St Andrews in 2000.
“I’ve known him for many, many years and he was a very keen golfer and a great man”.
“It might happen, it might not happen”, Stenson said. For all practical purposes, the quest for the Claret Jug is down to two.
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And the former Players champion looked to have put the nail in the coffin with a sublime tee shot on the par-three 17th.
