Paired together in the final group, Stenson shot 68 to Mickelson’s 70 on Saturday at Troon.
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It was Stenson though who is Champion Golfer of the Year at the age of 40, with the Open moving on to Royal Birkdale in 2017.
Henrik Stenson’s 63 will be historically underrated. His best previous finish in any major event came in 2013 at The Open Championship at Muirfield when he took the runner-up position solo behind none other than Mickelson.
Stenson rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt at the par-3 14th hole on Sunday to push his score to 17 under for the tournament.
His final stroke of this major masterpiece was a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Royal Troon that tumbled into the cup on the last turn. The 50-foot out that found the cup at the 15th put daylight between them for the first time.
“Right now I’m running on adrenaline”.
“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”.
Asked why there had never been a 62 in the major, Mickelson pointed to his putt.
“It looks like, depending on what happens on the back nine 1/8Saturday3/8, Henrik and Phil are sort of playing their own tournament right now”, he said. He opened with a 63, closed with a career-best 65, shot the second-best score in Open history and was 11 shots better than everyone in the field. The forecast was for strong wind and rain for Friday, especially when Mickelson and Kaymer play in the morning.
“I’ve been hitting it so good for so long, that I just think one day is an anomaly and hopefully I’ll get dialled back in tomorrow”, he said looking ahead to the last day.
“I thought it was a good round to back up the low round yesterday”. I can’t see why I can’t play my best golf in the coming years.
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.
One minute they were slugging it out in one of golf’s fiercest battles, the next minute Henrik Stenson stood over Phil Mickelson in triumph with the Claret Jug won. 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.
Now it’s on to the PGA Championship in less than two weeks, the schedule compressed because of the Olympics.
His biggest challenge was 46-year-old Mickelson, who has won five majors.
“Me, I said it yesterday, myself, Rory and Jordan were kind of on the bad side…it may be unlucky, but you’ve got to embrace it and try to play good”.
This was a shot-for-shot showdown that mirrored Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry in 1977, the famed “Duel in the Sun”.
Henrik Stenson began the final round Sunday with a one-shot lead, but gave it up with three-putt bogey at No. 1. Another shot back was Andrew Johnston, the Englishman with a big belly and beard to match who goes by “Beef”. “I knew that he would ultimately come through and win”. I am happy that he did.
“I’m just disappointed that it was at my expense”.
He finished on four-under 280, 16 shots behind Stenson, but it still gave him a tie for fifth. He is trying to become only the eighth player dating to Old Tom Morris in 1861 to win his first major after turning 40.
Some players tried to identify weak spots, including world number one Jason Day.
The Northern Irishman’s four-under-par round featured six birdies and two bogeys at the hard 11th and 12th holes and he finishes at four-under for the championship. For Mickelson, a second Open win would push him to six career majors-tying him with the likes of Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino.
Then he said, “So it’s just technically I’m giving you a bunch of stuff”.
Maybe he can take that silver jug down to Rio in his search of Olympic gold. That was one of the finest rounds of major championship golf ever to cap off what was probably the best or second-best major championship performance of all time.
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As it is, Stricker is at 3-under 210 for the tournament and probably too far back to make a run at becoming golf’s oldest major champion.
