Five-time major victor Mickelson, who had beaten Stenson into second place to lift the Claret Jug at Muirfield in 2013, found the positions reversed despite a flawless 65 to finish 17 under, with fellow American JB Holmes an unbelievable 11 shots further adrift in third.
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Phil Mickelson joked Thursday that the golf gods had kept him from being the only player to shoot a 62 in a major championship, his bid on the final hole at Royal Troon in the 145th British Open somehow staying out of the hole and setting up camp on the lip of the cup. His game was nowhere near as sharp as his opening-round 63 that tied a major championship record. “For how strong the wind was when we were on the tee, I thought that was a great set-up”. He finished third, 14 shots behind. They were tied with five holes to play until Stenson made an 18-foot birdie on the par-3 14th, and then buried Lefty with a putt that defined his moment as a major champion. “I don’t have a point where I can look back and say, “I should have done that” or ‘Had I only done this.’ I played a bogey-free round of 65 on the final round of a major”.
Henrik Stenson began the final round Sunday with a one-shot lead, but gave it up with three-putt bogey at No. 1.
The titanic tussle brought back memories of the Duel in the Sun between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in the 1977 Open at Turnberry – generally regarded as one of golf’s most enthralling battles.
Stenson, who came into the week as the sixth-ranked player in the world, finished at 20-under 264, the lowest 72-hole score ever in a major.
Mickelson’s 17-under total would have won all but two Opens over the last century. Two holes later, Mickelson was in danger of losing the lead when he pushed his 2-iron toward trouble and was fortunate the ball deflected off a piece of prickly gorse.
He gave Sweden a long-awaited major in men’s golf, 19 years after Jesper Parnevik lost a 54-hole lead at Royal Troon. In the elevated quality of the twosome, Stenson became the first Swedish male major champion through near-spotless golf, with a whopping 10 birdies to offset two three-putt bogeys from outer edges of greens. Stenson was simply better, converting birdies on four of his last five holes to defeat Mickelson by three strokes. He also would be the third-oldest major champion behind Julius Boros (48) and Morris, with whom Mickelson shares a birthday – June 16, albeit 149 years apart. Ironically enough, Mickelson also had a 63 during this year’s Open Championship in the first round.
And the four-time major winner’s frustrations finally came to a head on the 16th as he hurled his fairway wood to the turf and saw it snap into pieces after a wayward approach to the par-5. At the turn, Stenson maintained a one stroke advantage.
Now it’s on to the PGA Championship in less than two weeks, the schedule compressed because of the Olympics.
It is the 40-year-old Stenson’s first major title, but the way in which he wrapped up glory made him look as if he were a veteran of several successful major championship Sundays.
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The 40-year-old becomes the first Scandinavian player to win a major title, and he was only the second in history to fire a final-day 63 to do so – emulating the feat of Johnny Miller when he stormed to the US Open title at Oakmont in 1973.
