Stenson-Mickelson showdown exceeded Duel in the Sun, says Nicklaus

Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson and J.B Holmes are all examples of the modern power game but top 10 finishers Steve Stricker, Tyrell Hatton and Soren Kjeldsen are not.

Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson. Troon offers some of the great challenges in golf, especially with Scotland’s erratic weather conditions.

This was really the best way to “grow the game”, to get people engaged in golf again.

This one was more like the 39-year-old showdown between Watson and Nicklaus at another course in the British Open rotation, the one 25 miles down the Scottish coastline.

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. However, over the final 36 holes, Stenson took four less shots than Mickelson and that proved to be the difference.

How much did golf need High Troon, or the Duel in the Dreich, the most compelling finish to an Open Championship one can recall?

UCLA freshman Bethany Wu ran away from the field, shooting 68-69 over the final two days on the par-72 layout, and finishing at a blazing 7 under par. To win on 20-under when third was 14 shots behind. Watson shot a 65 for a one-stroke win over Nicklaus.

“It’s not something you want to run around and shout, but I felt like this was going to be my turn”, Stenson said.

“I always thought he would come through with a win”, Mickelson. Stenson was up by a shot after draining an 18-foot birdie on the 14th.

It never stopped the rest of the way. He played great during the tournament, certainly good enough to win. There are simply not enough superlatives to do justice to Henrik Stenson’s performance in winning the Open Championship at Royal Troon on Sunday.

And how did it measure up with his duel at Turnberry?

Stenson played possibly the greatest final round against a worthy foil, went toe to toe with one of the best of our generation, and scored his elusive major.

He’s unquestionably the unluckiest loser in major championship history.

But Stenson recorded the 29th 63 in Major championship history on Sunday, in the final pairing.

San Francisco has won three World Series titles in the past six years without having a 20-game victor on its pitching staff. The Giants could have two this season in Johnny Cueto (13-2) and Madison Bumgarner (10-5), but it hardly guarantees a championship.

Miller also made 10 birdies in his final round of the 1973 U.S. Open, and then waited to see if anyone could catch him.

It would be even better, yes, if it had been seen live on the BBC rather than restricted to Sky’s 300,000 subscribers, but that option, as we’ve discussed before in T2G, was never on the table; it was the BBC who effectively withdrew from live coverage of the Open.

Without Mickelson there to push him, there’s no telling how this final round would be remembered. Lefty shot a bogey-free 65 on Sunday – a score (and probable result) any golfer would happily take.

Meanwhile, Mickelson just failed to convert an eagle putt at 16, effectively killing his chances. They had a better-ball score of 59.

Their worst-ball score would have been 69. With all that background, one would expect both players to come and shoot the best round of their lives, but no one, and I mean no one expected what we saw this past Sunday! That’s what Turnberry had.

Stenson ended the drama there and stomped out the flickering flame as he rolled in yet another birdie on 18 to seal his victory and first Major win by 3-strokes.

To go into the final round just a shot behind, as five-time Major victor Phil Mickelson did, and card a flawless 65 but still lose by three shots goes to show how phenomenal Stenson played. Like I mentioned, he pretty much won the AFC Championship game and Super Bowl by himself. Others just outside the top 100 include Gregory Bourdy of France (No. 115), James Morrison of England (No. 106), Kristoffer Broberg of Sweden (No. 110), Shingo Katayama of Japan (No. 112) and Younghan Song of South Korea (No. 111).