“And when I was on the plane I worked out that I was flying over the federal prison in Florida where he’ll likely be for the rest of his life”. When they approached the par 3, 14th hole tied for the lead Sunday, Stenson holed an 18-footer for birdie to take the lead. “It was a lot of money”.
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“Mickelson and Stenson round was probably one of the best battles that I can remember”. He finished alone in third…
A month ago, such thoughts of his pupil winning one major in a summer, let alone two, was the furthest thing from Cowen’s mind, who for the first time in 15 years was left to question Stenson’s desire.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about that”, Mickelson said.
“Phil certainly has nothing to be ashamed of because he played wonderfully”, he said.
“But it was more thinking about all those people who lost a tremendous amount of money to him but weren’t fortunate enough to be in a position to make a lot of it back”.
“He wasn’t going to back down. It forces me to keep my game sharp”.
Stenson has a reputation for being a prankster on tour.
Now the number five in the world, he will be the top ranked player in Rio after the top four all withdrew.
Pete Cowen, coach and mentor of Henrik Stenson, said the Olympic golf tournament will be a great spectacle, despite such negative headlines.
What nickname will the 145th Open Championship get? He has no quit in him. Gareth Lord, Stenson’s caddie, made a different type of bet on his player. That minus-20 also matched Jason Day’s all-time major under-par score at Whistling Straits in 2015, and I suspect even Day would give the nod to Troon in degree of difficulty. It will go down as one of the great, great days. For some reason, I felt like this is my time, and it was.
Yesterday he drove the ball with imperious precision.
In his opening round at Royal Troon, Mickelson equaled the record for low round in a major championship, and came within a lipped-out birdie putt of setting a new record of 62.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson claimed his first major championship by outlasting 46-year-old Phil Mickelson in the final round of the British Open.
Stenson had obviously grown exhausted of hearing that his countrymen couldn’t get it done. In 2012 he got the driving yips again and plummeted to world No230.
“I’ve had a fantastic career”. “I thought we played great and had a wonderful match”. “There’s been many great players from my country who have tried in past years and decades, and there’s been a couple of really close calls”.
“Jesper (Parnevik) in particular twice”. “He was like, ‘No, I really don’t like school.’ I said, ‘That’s one issue, because you do have to go to class.’ Plus, he had the ability”.
“She still loves the Gamecocks, and we still stay in touch”, he said. You never know once you open the floodgates what might happen.
“As soon as Henrik sends me the Aston Martin he promised me when he won his first major, I’ll retire then”, laughed Cowen. It’s a dream come true.
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“I started the playing game when I was 11”.
