If Turnberry had its famed “Duel in the Sun” between golfing gladiators Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus all those years ago in 1977, the prospect of a modern day “Duel in the Wind” has materialised in this 145th British Open at Royal Troon where Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson are set to battle it out for the famed Claret Jug.
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Turns out this was only the preview to a duel at Royal Troon. He was one of only 13 players to break par on a day of intermittent showers and gusts of up to 30 miles per hour off the Irish Sea.
Asked if he harbors any feelings of revenge, Stenson again smiled and said softly, “There’s always revenge”.
Bidding to win his first major at the age of 40, Sweden’s Stenson played some superb golf for the joint-lowest round of the day at Royal Troon and sits at 12 under par overall.
Henrik Stenson will start the final round of the British Open leading the championship, and trying not to think about how it’s going to end.
Now 46 and a five-time major champion, Mickelson has a chance to become the second-oldest British Open victor.
“I know [Mickelson] is not going to back down, and I’m certainly going to try to not back down either. It should be an exciting afternoon”.
Mickelson, winless since he lifted golf’s oldest trophy at Muirfield three years ago, had a 70.
On 10, Stenson was short on his approach and even worse on his third shot – a pitch that stopped some 35 feet short of the hole. He had just enough room to hammer it up the fairway, and then played a shot rarely seen in links golf – instead of running it up along the ground, he used his quick hands to produce enough backspin to bring it back down a ridge to 6 feet from the hole.
Mickelson didn’t swing as well as the first two days. Some days it’s hard and it looks awful, like it did today. Then, after falling two behind on the 13th where Mickelson birdied and Stenson bogeyed, his response was to bounce back with a birdie two on the 14th. Stenson answered with a 5-iron to 6 feet for birdie on the next hole to tie for the lead when Mickelson three-putted, only his third bogey of the week.
Stenson hit a handsome 3 iron some 10 feet from the pin and made a birdie two. Mickelson lost the lead by missing the green to the left and making bogey.
Stenson’s one-shot lead puts the 40-year-old Swede as close as he’s ever been to winning his first major. It’s his highest position ever in a major, yet he was six shots out of the lead. He broke par for the third straight day with a 70.
After the round, Mickelson quickly shook off any suggestion that this would be match play between two Ryder Cup rivals, but Stenson seemed to embrace it. Earlier this week, he said that having already won a Claret Jug had eased the pressure. It was reminiscent of the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot, when Davis Love III and Justin Leonard shared the 54-hole lead and were seven clear of everyone else. “Most important thing is to find a way to get the ball in the hole, and that’s what I did. and that’s all that I really care about”.
A victory Sunday would give him six majors, same as Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino. 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. The 1861 Open was held in September. On the fourth hole, Mickelson hit his tee shot into the tall grass right of the fairway, but recovered to save par. No save was more unlikely than the 12th, where he pushed his tee shot toward trouble and was fortunate the ball deflected off a piece of prickly gorse. “It could have easily got away from me”. “But I hit enough good shots on the back to shoot even par on a very hard stretch”.
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“I tried to play a little bit more aggressive down the downwind holes”, said Mickelson.
