He needed to be at his best to beat playing partner Phil Mickelson, whose 65 saw him finish three shots adrift, with the killer blow coming when Stenson holed a 45 foot birdie putt on the 16th green.
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Stenson, the world No. 6, broke the deadlock of an absorbing afternoon by sinking long birdie putts at the 14th and 15th and added two more in the final three holes to card a major record-equaling 63.
But Stenson held a one-shot lead going into the day, and the 40-year-old Swede prevailed by three strokes, shooting a final round of 8-under 63 to win his first major title with a total of 264, the lowest in major championship history.
SWEDISH DELIGHT: Stenson is the first Swedish man to win a major.
The opening-round eight-under 63 put the five-time major victor in the driver’s seat, and he followed up his course-record score with a respectable 69 amid intermittent showers and without his best stuff.
Henrik Stenson of Sweden, left and Phil Mickelson of the United States embrace as they walk off the 18th green after Stenson won the British Open Golf Championships at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland, Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Mickelson gave it his best shot in his bid at 46 to become the fourth-oldest major victor in history. Mickelson managed to save par, and Stenson missed the birdie and tapped in for par to take a two-shot lead to 18.
On Sunday, Henrik Stenson looked immortal and kept a second Claret Jug out of Mickelson’s hands.
Stenson took a one-shot lead into the final round at Royal Troon, only to three-putt the opening hole from just short of the green after Mickelson had already fired his approach to within two feet. “I’m sorry that it came at my expense”. He finished third, 14 shots behind.
“We both played some great golf”, Stenson said.
His last victory of any kind came in the 2013 British Open at Muirfield.
The Swede won his first major in his 42nd attempt, becoming only the ninth player to capture his first major after turning 40. 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. It wasn’t just Open records, and it wasn’t just Stenson setting them, either. I got beat by 10 birdies, and its not like other guys were out there doing the same thing.
They matched pars on only six of the 18 holes.
Stenson became only the fourth player to win the British Open with all four rounds in the 60s, joining Tiger Woods, Nick Price and Greg Norman.
Undoubtedly, Stenson fought hard, but Mickelson also refused to submit and the two went at it across the Troon links like possessed prize-fighters.
“I lost a dear friend on Wednesday morning, Mike Gerbich”, Stenson said.
Golf’s top four players have withdrawn from the Olympics, but the Rio Games will have at least two of this year’s major champions – Stenson and Masters victor Danny Willett of England.
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“Given that I failed my driver’s test probably as many times I was second or third at major championships, my pride in getting that one has to be higher than this”, he joked. The PGA Championship starts a week from Thursday.
