267: Phil Mickelson 63-69-70-65. Rather than fold, the two rose to the occasion and played awesome golf for 18 holes.
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In his mind, those were U.S. Open titles he frittered away.
On his own, Stenson could have claimed the greatest closing round in a major. “What a great match today”.
“Thank you very much for a great fight”, Stenson told Mickelson as he accepted the Claret Jug.
The Swede won The Open for the first time at Royal Troon by carding a score of -20, two ahead of nearest challenger Mickelson. All of that after overcoming a bogey on the first hole of the day. “I felt it was my time”.
“I’m very proud of the way I played”. Mickelson said it was the best golf he ever played without winning.
“It would be pretty cool to have that next to some of the other nice trophies I’ve managed to win”. And I put in my best performance today.
“We played some extraordinary golf and at the start yesterday there were birdies and eagles”.
“I was hopeful that I could shoot something in the mid-60s”, Mickelson said.
Maybe birdie every hole.
So Stenson was 20-under and Mickelson was 17-under.
As the wind died down and the sun made a rare appearance, Stenson delivered the coup de grace with a hat-trick of birdies at the 14th, 15th and 16th giving him a two-shot advantage with two holes to play.
“I had to make 30 or 40-footers just to try to keep pace with him, and wasn’t able to do it there in the end”. Spieth was fighting the press over what he perceived are unfair and unrealistic expectations placed on him after he won two majors in 2015. Moreover, he showed a resolve that he’d never tapped into this deeply. “It seemed like it was going to be a two-horse race and it was all the way to the end”, Stenson said.
“Right now I’m running on adrenaline but there will be some point when I’ll struggle to make it up the stairs when I get back to the house”, he smiled. His score of 267 was 11 strokes better than third-place J.B.
Henrik Stenson’s epic Sunday showdown with Phil Mickelson at the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon is gaining the highest praise from Jack Nicklaus.
“I was thinking about that”, Mickelson said with a slight smile. It turned into the most entertaining final round I’ve ever watched.
“They shouldn’t worry about it, if Usain Bolt didn’t turn up to the Olympics they’d be up in arms, well Henrik Stenson – the Usain Bolt of golf at the moment – is turning up, so don’t worry about it, it’ll be a great tournament”.
Stenson began the day with a one-shot lead.
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Stenson, full of adrenaline on the 18th tee, hammered his tee shot 310 yards down the fairway and was mightily relieved to see it stop 12 inches short of one of Royal Troon’s fiendish pot bunkers.
