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.
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Mickelson, seeking his sixth major title at age 46, did all he could to capture the claret jug.
The Swede’s winning total of 20-under 264 was the lowest 72-hole score ever in the majors. Watson shot 65-65, Nicklaus 65-66.
He is the first Swedish male in history to win a major title.
The Ryder Cup star also matched yet another benchmark as he became the 27th player to fire a 63 in a major championship, three days after Mickelson became the 26th.
Stenson is at 19-under for the tournament and poised to break the Open scoring record.
Stenson became only the fourth player to win the British Open with all four rounds in the 60s, joining Tiger Woods, Nick Price and Greg Norman. No more than one shot separated the leaders until the 15 hole, when Stenson rolled in a 45-foot birdie to lead by two. They are each at 5 under for the day. “It’s not something you want to run around and shout but I felt like this was going to be my turn”.
Southgate had a 1-under 283 total and will earn an exemption into next year’s British Open at Birkdale.
“I’m really proud to have done that, and it’s going to be massive for golf in Sweden with this win”, Stenson said. “I knew he wasn’t going to back down at any point, and I knew I had to keep on pushing, keep on giving myself birdie chances and he wasn’t going to give it to me”. He wound up with so much more Sunday.
Still, this one hurt just as much as the rest of them. JB Holmes of the United States was a distant third at six under par. Like it did on Thursday and Saturday. “Parnevik carried a two-shot lead into Sunday, but Dallas” Justin Leonard rallied from five shots behind to win.
Stenson understandably struggled to describe his emotions after finally breaking his major duck, following five previous top-three finishes. Lefty had a 16-footer for birdie at the 18th in his opening round. Stenson made a matching birdie, pulling off a nifty up-and-down from the thick grass left of the green. Stenson made a two-putt par at 17 and a lengthy birdie at 18 to play his way into the record books.
The duel is on at the British Open. “I played a bogey-free round of 65 in the final round of a major”.
It looks to be a two-man competition. That was the first of four lead changes, plus eight ties, to use basketball vernacular, which seemed fitting Sunday.
They both smiled and shook hands.
“You know, it’s not like I have decades left of opportunities to win majors, so each one means a lot to me”.
Stenson called Gerbich, “one of the really good guys”, and how the 74-year-old lost his battle to cancer this week. He won the PGA Championship there in 2005. He dropped out of the Rio Olympics, citing health concerns. He was 14 shots behind.
Asked if he would attempt to qualify for another Open, Monty says he’d “love to try and do that again”. Even that peeked out a bit over the final nine holes, when conditions softened a tad. “Played close to flawless golf and was beat”.
On another cool, rainy day at Royal Troon, it looks like a two-man showdown.
But Stenson atoned for his error with a 12-foot putt on the second after Mickelson grazed the edge of the hole with his chip, and the Swede was back in front on the next as he drained another putt from similar range.
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“And yes, it was annoying”, he grinned, calling it the greatest day of his life, next to the birth of his three children.
