“I was fortunate to watch every second of the final round of The Open Championship and I thought it was fantastic”, the 18-time major champion wrote on Twitter.
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Today’s an I’ll Have Another day so it’s rise and shine as usual, tomorrow I’ve got to go get another Rio-prep needle right off the bat so that’ll be rise and shine as usual and the women’s Olympic basketball team gets announced Friday and I haven’t seen them in forever so that’ll be another routine morning. “Played close to flawless golf and got beat”. Even when you play your best.
Miller also made 10 birdies in his final round of the 1973 U.S. Open, and then waited to see if anyone could catch him.
Following all the rotten weather since Friday, the sun finally burst though the Ayrshire cloud as Stenson and Mickelson stood on the first tee.
Dustin Johnson never at any time joined the chase, hanging around par the whole tournament, though his final 2-under total got him a T-9, and Rory McIlroy – at the end of a controversy-stirring, 3-wood-breaking week – was even par after 54 holes, knew he had no chance, and shot a 67 Sunday for a wholly unimpressive T-5.
It equalled the lowest round score in major championship history and, as if there were not enough mind-boggling facts already, it was the second such score the past week, following Mickelson’s own 63 on Thursday. To win your first major championship is something special in and of itself, but to do it in the fashion Henrik did it in, makes for something very special and incredibly memorable. “It was a great match with Phil. It seemed like it was going to be a two-horse race and it was all the way to the end”, Stenson said. “I knew I had to keep on pushing”. A number of top players who have pulled out of the Games have cited the virus, which is linked to microcephaly – small heads – in babies, as their reason for not going. “I know that I wanted to be more of Tom in this case than Jack, but I understand how it feels”.
This head-to-head matchup will surely be remembered alongside the “Duel in the Sun” at Turnberry between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in 1977.
Indeed, while Stenson and Mickelson were preparing for a major duel for the ages, the young guns were imploding – both on and off the course.
Lefty was two shots better than anyone else in the field.
Small wonder that Mickelson calls it the “best I’ve played and not won”.
“It’s disappointing to come in second, but I’m happy for Henrik”. I’m happy that he did. “I’m disappointed that it was at my expense”. On Sunday, J.B. Holmes finished third, 11 shots behind the runner-up. He finished third, 14 shots behind.
After all, there has been an American champion in each of the last six Opens played at Troon, from Arnold Palmer in 1962 up to the unheralded Todd Hamilton in 2004.
Stenson recovered from dropping a shot at the par-four first by recording five birdies before the turn and also recording a birdie at the 10th.
They walked off the 18th green together, arms wrapped around each other, forever linked by one of golf’s greatest duels. Greg Norman won the 1993 British Open with a 267.
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But it was Stenson, a five-time victor as a part-time player on the PGA Tour, who held the claret jug and told Mickelson at the closing ceremony, “Thank you very much for a great fight”.
