Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson both made history at the British Open this week, but there could be only one champion.
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Mickelson grabbed his only lead of the day when he made birdie on the first and Stenson, the 54-hole leader by one, made bogey.
It capped an entertaining duel that left the rest of the competition in the dust.
But, it still wasn’t enough.
Phil Mickelson stopped at the glass-encased claret jug beside the first tee and kissed it with his fingertips.
His final score of 20- under broke Tiger Woods’s British Open scoring record of 19-under, set in 2000, and equals Jason Day’s all-time major record set at the 2015 U.S. PGA. On Sunday, J.B. Holmes finished third, 11 shots behind the runner-up.
It was Stenson though who is Champion Golfer of the Year at the age of 40, with the Open moving on to Royal Birkdale in 2017.
Sunday’s round was highly entertaining, as Mickelson did everything he could to keep pace with the eventual champion.
Stenson hammered in a 50-foot birdie putt across the 15th green, walking toward the hole as it was on its way, stopping halfway to pump his fist when it fell, rare emotion for a 40-year-old Swede with ice blue eyes and a stare that can cut through gorse.
Mickelson was not about to throw in the towel and hit a superb approach to the par-five 16th, but after his eagle putt agonisingly slipped across the front of the hole, Stenson holed from four feet for birdie – having missed the green with his second – to remain two ahead with two to play. “He was with me out there and it just felt like it was going to be my week”.
Stenson’s total of 264 set a record for lowest score at a major.
“I don’t remember being in a match like that where we’ve separated ourselves from the field by so many strokes and it’s probably the best I’ve played and not won”, said Mickelson, who has finished runner-up six times in the US Open down the years. “I got beat by 10 birdies”.
Although the weather could not match the heatwave for the epic contest between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at nearby Turnberry in 1977, the golf certainly revived memories of the “Duel in the Sun” as the final pair combined for 14 birdies and an eagle.
Henrik Stenson can no longer be considered the best player in the world without a major.
But this was even better. “I knew he wasn’t going to back down at any point, and I knew I had to keep on pushing, keep on giving myself birdie chances and he wasn’t going to give it to me”. I knew it, and with a foot to go I thought I had done it. I saw that ball rolling right in the center.
Clearly Stenson and Mickelson were clearly playing a different tournament, so to say.
One feels so happy for Stenson, who has been near the top for many years and come close to Majors on numerous occasions, but never quite crossed the line to take the Trophy.
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As for me, it was a week that has to be shrugged aside, a few lessons learnt for the future and time to get ready for PGA Championships and then the Rio Olympics.
