So Ive got that working against me.. He wound up with so much more Sunday.
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Stenson reached that mark on the final day of competition, as he also carded a 63 and drained a long birdie putt on the 18th hole to seal the deal.
THE biggest story of day one was without a doubt when American Phil Mickelson was just inches from the lowest score in major championship history.
With momentum on his side following wins in his last two starts, and the fact that the reigning US Open champion’s power-hitting game was ideally suited for Royal Troon, a tied-ninth finish was the absolute worst Johnson could have finished with. Paul Lawrie of Scotland won the British Open at Carnoustie in 1999, it was another eight years and 31 majors before Padraig Harrington won his first major, also in the British Open at Carnoustie.
“I was so zoned in the last five holes I didn’t know how many birdies I had made in that round”, he said.
Stenson and Mickelson were never separated by more than two shots for 40 consecutive holes until Stenson’s final birdie to win by three.
Lefty played bogey-free for a 65 and posted a score (267) that would have won all but two Opens over more than a century. Our final round was really good, but theirs was even better. You don’t have that, you rarely ever have that in championship golf.
“I would be very disappointed if they don’t go back to Trump Turnberry”, he said.
A birdie on the previous hole handed Stenson a one-stroke buffer over his opponent late in the tournament, before Mickelson’s approach to the 15th settled inside Stenson’s as he tried to play catch up.
Poor round At least my play on Friday showed me that what happened on Thursday was a poor round that had come out of the blue.
J.B. Holmes won the B-Flight.
With a forecast of gusts topping 30 miles per hour for the third round Saturday, the R&A finished its morning preparation of Royal Troon and decided not to cut or roll the putting surfaces in case the wind got out of hand. “Played close to flawless golf and was beat”, he said.
A bogey on the 16th hole cost him at Valhalla when Rory McIlroy won by one shot, and a bogey on the 17th hole at Bethpage Black left Mickelson one shot behind in the 2009 U.S. Open.
Tom Watson agrees with fellow golf legend Jack Nicklaus that Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickleson’s Open battle at Troon was higher quality than their ‘Duel in the Sun’ in 1977.
2005 was Stenson’s first PGA Championship, where he finished in a tie for 47th at Baltusrol. Barber defeated Don January in an 18-hole Monday playoff with a score of 3-under 67 to January’s 2-under 68, to win his lone major.
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. One can find other mistakes, but with the exception of Royal Troon, even the victor doesn’t hit all the right shots.
Jesper Parnevik was among them, and Stenson said Parnevik messaged him before his round, “Go out and finish what I didn’t manage to finish”.
Maybe he can take that silver jug down to Rio in his search of Olympic gold.
Open champion Henrik Stenson says he may need another nine major titles before he can be compared to Sweden’s legendary footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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We would have really loved to give him a 12 – one extra mark for the awesome final round, which included four birdies over the last five holes at a time when the pressure of a major championship is most intense, and one extra mark for his unbelievable tribute to the late Mike Gerbich, his friend in Dubai for many years.
