If this was a better-ball match, they would have shot 59.
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With his family watching, cancer survivor Matthew Southgate was in tears as he approached the 18th green at Royal Troon.
But the 40-year-old Swede stormed to his first major crown with rounds of 68, 65 and 68 followed by a joint record 63 on Sunday to hold off a strong challenge from Phil Mickelson. He became only the second golfer to win a major by carding 63 in the final round, joining Johnny Miller (1973 U.S. Open).
But the allure went beyond the scoring records and a decent pace of play because Stenson and Mickelson epitomize all there is to love about golf: True individuals playing a truly individual sport. The wind has died down, and the sun even broke through a clouds a few times Sunday.
After coming close at Muirfield in 2013, posting two third-place finishes at the USPGA Championship in 2013 and 2014 and finishing fourth at the 2014 US Open, Lord said finally getting over the line was a great feeling.
He played bogey-free for a 6-under round and posted a score (267) that would have won all but two Opens over more than a century.
“A 65 in the final round of a major is usually good enough to win”, said Mickelson, who entered the week as the 19th-ranked player in the world. If McIlroy’s lacklustre club breaking on Saturday left you unfulfilled, go onto YouTube and search “Henrik Stenson club breaking” and you’ll see how it’s supposed to be done.
“I’d like to thank Phil for a fantastic battle, we played some great golf and I am delighted to come out on top but thank you very much for a great fight”. “It’s not something you want to run around and shout but I felt like this was going to be my turn”.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about that”, Mickelson said.
“Some in the media have already tried to compare today’s final round to 1977 at Turnberry, with Tom Watson and me in what they called the ‘duel in the sun, ‘” Nicklaus tweeted.
Stenson came into the final day leading by one-stroke at 12 under par, but Mickelson recovered with a birdie on the first to swap positions, but soon after the two were neck-on-neck in the ultimate duel.
That’s when Stenson put his stamp on it.
Stenson made 10 birdies, including a 50-foot putt across the 15th green that had him pumping his fist in a rare show of emotion Sunday.
Stenson appeared to be showing signs of nerves when he bogeyed the first but he recovered from that to produce a scarcely credible 10 birdies over the afternoon, rendering his dropped shot at the par-four 11th meaningless. Stenson matched his birdie with an up-and-down from deep rough, and he was on his way. “I knew that he would ultimately come through and win”.
American J.B. Holmes was a distant third on six-under 278, but the other scores were just a detail.
This one was more like the 39-year-old showdown between Watson and Nicklaus at another course in the British Open rotation, the one 25 miles down the Scottish coastline. He won the PGA Championship there in 2005.
The Swede, who had never won a major before, started the day at Royal Troon one shot ahead of Phil Mickelson.
He added, “It’s nice to have a former Moc win 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.
Afterwards the Tyrone boss said: “This is the best of them all because of the starvation that was there for six years and because of what had gone on before”.
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He gave Sweden a long-awaited major in men’s golf, 19 years after Jesper Parnevik lost a 54-hole lead at Royal Troon.
