With a nod to the typically Scottish summer weather seen at Troon over the last two days, he added of the fear of failure: “The sun will come up on Monday anyway, hopefully”. Stenson also tied the record for the lowest score on the final day of a major.
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The Spaniard has always been considered the best player never to win a major – and there is no doubt he will be striving hard again today.
He made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole for a two-shot lead.
Stenson is at 19-under for the tournament and poised to break the Open scoring record.
Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson are turning the 145th Open Championship into a two-man slugfest, setting up a Sunday showdown.
“There’s only one thing that matters tomorrow”, Stenson said after Saturday’s round.
“I’m happy with the way I played, but disappointed it wasn’t enough”, Mickelson 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. He has the lowest 36-hole total at Royal Troon. A traumatic 12 months for the Englishman was ending on a high. All it took was 10 birdies and a magnificent 8-under 63 in the closing round of the British Open.
“I know that I wanted to be more of Tom in that case than Jack, but unfortunately – I understand how it feels [to lose out]. It could have been a day that got away from me but I’m pleased I found a way to shoot under par and kept myself in it”.
Like that, Stenson went from a cumulative 12-under par to 12, while Mickelson went from 12 to 11.
The day started with Mickelson at 10-under, Stenson (9), Keegan Bradley (7), Soren Kjeldsen (7), defending champion Zach Johnson (5), with Sergio Garcia, Tony Finau, Bill Haas, Charle Schwartzel, and Andrew Johnston all at 4-under, making up the top 10. Together, they have combined for seven birdies, one eagle and just one bogey.
There’s one more major to play before Rio.
No one else is even close.
As for the rest of the field, JB Holmes was the nearest contender back on -6, some 14 shots behind the victor and 11 behind Mickleson.
Meanwhile, five-time major victor Mickelson birdied the first to reclaim the overall lead.
Until that final birdie, Stenson and Mickelson were never separated by more than two shots over 40 consecutive holes. Mickelson responded with two birdies of his own and an eagle on the outward nine.
But then Stenson landed a significant blow when he drained a long one across the green on the 14th and he dropped another bomb out of nowhere on 15 to rock his rival.
In 2013 he finished second to Mickelson when Lefty clinched the Claret Jug with a sizzling final round at Muirfield. Stenson made a two-putt par at 17 and a lengthy birdie at 18 to play his way into the record books. “Some days it’s easy and it looks pretty… some days it’s hard and it looks awful”. Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood have already posted 3-under 68s, and five other players have turned in scores below par.
The duel is on at the British Open.
The American left-hander shot a final-round 65 without a single bogey to finish on 17-under for the week, but still ended up losing by three shots to an inspired Stenson.
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And he produced a remarkable bunker shot on the last to keep on Stenson’s tail.
