Stenson moved up from sixth to fifth after a stunning 63 in the final round gave him a first major title and three-shot victory over Phil Mickelson, who climbed from 19th to 13th in the standings.
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Lefty also opened the back nine with a birdie, and when Stenson made his second bogey of the day on the eleventh, the players were all square. Stenson’s ball-striking was unreal, hitting 16-of-18 greens in regulation, and his putter was scorching hot as he needed only 27 putts to get around Royal Troon.
Stenson had been locked in a titanic tussle with Mickelson and he surged over the line with four birdies on his last five holes to prevail in one of golf’s greatest battles.
While this weekend functioned primarily as a showcase for Stenson and Mickelson, some of golf’s other top performers closed the tournament well.
After the two had separated themselves from the field over the first three rounds, Stenson (-12) led Mickelson (-11) by a single shot.
Stenson’s winning total also represented a new record for golf’s oldest major, breaking both the Open scoring record of 267 set by Greg Norman at Royal St. George’s in 1993 and the major championship mark of 265 by David Toms at the 2001 PGA Championship. They didn’t. Stenson rolled in a pair of birdie bombs on the 14th and 15th, pulling two ahead of Mickelson with three holes to play and heading to the par-5 16th.
Trading birdies and making few mistakes, the two were tied through the 13th hole, and then Stenson generated two enormous roars from the huge galleries. “I knew I had to keep on pushing, keep on giving myself birdie chances”. “I’m happy with the way I played, but even more disappointed that it wasn’t enough because you look back and say, ‘what do I need to do?'”
“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but I’m very happy”, Stenson said.
Then he went out and birdied the first hole to Henrik Stenson’s bogey, and took the lead in the final round of the 145th Open Championship. Usually that’s good enough to do it. And I got beat.
Stenson is coached by Yorkshireman Pete Cowen and has Gareth Lord from Coventry as his caddie.
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 and Mickelson were playing on another level to anyone else in Ayrshire with J.B. Holmes in third with a score of -6. Stenson matched his birdie with an up-and-down from deep rough, and he was on his way. There’s been many great players from my country tried in past years and decades and there’s been a couple of really close calls, Jesper [Parnevik] in particular twice. “I’m sorry that it came at my expense”.
Said Mickelson: “I thought we played pretty good golf. It could have been a day that got away from me, so I’m proud of that”.
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“We’ve been friends for some time and I knew that he would ultimately come through and win one”.
