All he wanted was the silver Claret Jug.
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Mickelson grabbed his only lead of the day when he made birdie on the first and Stenson, the 54-hole leader by one, made bogey.
In an wonderful display of golf, Stenson and Mickelson have combined for 10 birdies, an eagle and only two bogeys in the final round.
He settled for a birdie to remain two strokes behind Stenson.
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 finished it off with another birdie at the final hole, giving him the lowest score in major championship history.
Stenson’s -20 score is the lowest in the history of The Open, beating Tiger Woods’s record score of -19 at St Andrews in 2000.
Day said it was no great coincidence he and his big-name rivals were battling to keep pace. I’m happy with where my game has come this year. Phil Mickelson spun his approach shot about two feet from the flag and tapped in for birdie and a one-stroke lead.
“Yeah, I mean we had it before Padraig (Harrington) won at Carnoustie: ‘When are we going to have a European major winner?’ Then he managed to do that, and then there’s always another question”, Stenson said. “I know I’m going to get hit but I am going to hit just as hard back”.
“I had to get the head re-glued, so it was probably partly to do with that and partly the throw as well”.
“That was links perfection, we will never see a greater pairing on a final group as long as we live, 65 for Phil and 63 for Henrik”, Faldo told the BBC. Case in point: Mickelson putted out for par on No. 11 to put pressure on Stenson, who held a one-shot lead until he missed his relatively short par putt after Mickelson’s make.
Mickelson, winless since he lifted golf’s oldest trophy at Muirfield three years ago, had 70; when Mickelson won in 2013, he nipped Stenson with a furious finish.
Stenson capped off his victory in style, pumping a 310-yard 3-wood down the 18th fairway – almost hitting it too well as it came up a foot shy of a bunker – and then finding the center of the green to take away any nerves from his putt, which he buried anyways to make his round a record-setting one.
American JB Holmes (69) was third some 13 strokes adrift of Stenson, with his veteran countryman Steve Stricker (69) fourth a further shot back at five-under 279.
“So there’s obviously a little bit of luck that is involved with getting to the top as well as playing good golf”. “I know that I wanted to be more of Tom in this case than Jack, but I understand how it feels”.
Not since Davis Love and Justin Leonard shared the lead and were seven shots clear of the field in the 1997 PGA Championship had the final round of a major took on the appearance of match play. 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.
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Stenson hammered in a 50-foot birdie putt across the 15th green, walking toward the hole as it was on its way, stopping halfway to pump his fist when it fell, rare emotion for a 40-year-old Swede with ice blue eyes and a stare that can cut through gorse.
