For the second day running and for the third time this week, Stenson birdied the par-three 14th to edge ahead once more, Mickelson having missed his long-range attempt.
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Stenson had finished second behind Mickelson at Muirfield in 2013 but the circumstances were very different here as the pair played together in the final group on Saturday and Sunday to produce a duel of the highest quality and drama. He has now finished in the top 10 in eight of the last 11 major tournaments he has competed in.
Stenson’s total score was the lowest ever in Open history and was the Swede’s first major at the age of 40.
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.
CANCER SUVIVOR: England’s Matthew Southgate shot 69 to secure a place in the top 15, a year after he underwent surgery for testicular cancer. The final pairing pushed it to yet another level during the final round on Sunday as Stenson and Mickelson carded the two best rounds on Sunday. Stenson tied a major record with a 63 that included 10 birdies and two bogeys.
“I played a bogey-free round of 65 in the final round of a major, usually that’s good enough to do it – and I got beat”.
“It’s not something that you want to run around and shout, but I felt like this was going to be my turn”, Stenson said.
But he played some brilliant golf on the extremely challenging back nine, going two-under coming home with birdies at the short 14th and 17th holes.
Neither golfer, however, could put a scare into Stenson or Mickelson, who, for one weekend, were at the center of the golfing world. He and I have been friends for quite some time and I really like and respect him.
The 46-year-old, a five-time major victor, said: “I’ve always thought that he is one of the best ball-strikers in the game and that major championships are perfectly suited for him”. But it was still a runner-up finish in a major, the 11th of his career, his extensive list of close calls surpassed only by Nicklaus’ 19.
“Our final round was really good”, Nicklaus said, “but theirs was even better”.
As the wind died down and the sun made a rare appearance, Stenson delivered the coup de grace with a hat trick of birdies at the 14th, 15th and 16th holes to give him a two-shot advantage with two holes to play. Then he staggered Mickelson’s heart with a 45-footer for birdie on the next hole to go up by 2.
“Today could have been a day that got away from me, instead I shot under par and kept myself right in heading into tomorrow’s final round, so I’m proud of that”. Stenson said Parnevik send him a message that said, “Go out and finish what I didn’t manage to finish”.
“I played what I feel was well enough to win this championship by a number of strokes, and yet I got beat by three strokes”, he said.
Nicklaus doesn’t watch a lot of golf on television, but he considers himself fortunate to have watched “every second” of this one. This time, it was a birdie that clinched his first major and made a little bit of history along the way.
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He added the gloss in front of the packed grandstands with a 10th birdie to cap one of the most remarkable days of major championship golf.
