Henrik Stenson outshines Phil Mickelson to win British Open

Stenson played the round of his life and needed it, shooting 63 to tie the major championship scoring record, twice birdied three holes in a row, and when he rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt at the 18th, he broke Woods’ all-time Open Championship strokes-below-par record of 19-under.

“Wow, this will take a little while to sink in”, said Stenson as he held aloft the coveted Claret Jug. J.B. Holmes closed with a 69 and finished in third, 14 strokes behind Stenson.

Down by one shot at the outset, Mickelson immediately reversed the score when he striped his approach to 1 foot at No. 1 and Stenson three-putted. He made an 18-foot putt at the 14th, and putting from off the green at 15, Stenson drained a roll of 51 feet. Stenson made one final birdie at 18 to hit the magic 63 number.

Having headed into Sunday trailing Stenson by a solitary stroke, Mickelson performed superbly, making four birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free 65.

His winning total of 20 under par was three clear of Mickelson, and clinched fittingly by a 25-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole.

The Swede’s red-hot putter earned him his eighth birdie of an incredible round at 15 to double his advantage, which he retained with a sublime up-and-down from the fescue grass to the left of the long 16th to match the birdie of Mickelson, whose eagle putt settled on the edge of the hole.

Maybe it was a sign when the sun popped out from behind the clouds for the first time in three days at Royal Troon just as Stenson and Mickelson walked to the first tee. The one-shot overnight lead was a one-shot deficit by the second tee box but that was the first of only two bogeys in a round which featured a staggering ten birdies. The two veterans battled it out, but it was the Swede that pulled off his first ever major championship victory over the surefire Hall of Famer.

“I’m very excited with the work that I’ve put in with (swing coach) Andrew Getson”, Mickelson said. “It could have been a day that got away from me, so I’m proud of that”. “I think that’s probably why it’s disappointing in that I don’t have a point where I can look back and say, ‘I should have done that or had I only done this.’ I played a bogey-free round of 65 on the final round of a major”.

“You know, it’s not like I have decades left of opportunities to win majors, so each one means a lot to me”.

“We both played some great golf”, Stenson said.

Stenson, who finished second to Mickelson in the 2013 Open at Muirfield, beaten by three shots, dedicated the win to a friend from Dubai who died of cancer this week.

Stenson recovered from dropping a shot at the par-four first by recording five birdies before the turn and also recording a birdie at the 10th.

“I felt and I believed like it was my time to do this”, Stenson said after the win. Beyond the score, the measure of his performance was that he putted for a birdie on every hole Sunday in a mild wind off the Irish Sea.

“I thought we played great and had a wonderful match”, Nicklaus wrote on his Facebook page, remembering Turnberry.

It certainly looks like Henrik Stenson has had a pretty good year on the golf course, but it was topped off by the biggest win of his career.

Defending champion Zach Johnson shot 71 to end one under, while England’s Masters champion Danny Willett ended seven over. “Played close to flawless golf and was beat”.

Now it’s on to the PGA Championship in less than two weeks, the schedule compressed because of the Olympics.