When you’re a stroke back going into the final round of a major and shoot 65, odds are you’ve come from behind to win.
That wasn’t the case for Phil Mickelson on Sunday at Royal Troon. His 17-under par score was good enough to win just about every Open before this but he ran into the record-setting effort of Henrik Stenson and his closing 63.
“It’s probably the best I’ve played and not won,” Mickelson said after he watched Stenson shoot a record 20-under par at the 145th Open Championship. “I think that’s probably why it’s disappointing in that I don’t have a point when I can look back and say I should have done that or had I only done this.”
Mickelson threw the first punch, a beautiful approach at the first hole and a birdie that got him to 11-under and took the lead from Stenson, who had a three-putt bogey.
I played a bogey-free round of 65 on the final round of a major. Usually that’s good enough to do it and I got beat. I got beat by 10 birdies. It’s not like the other guys were out there doing the same thing. It was a challenging day. It was fun to be part of that challenge. It’s just disappointing for me to finish second but we’ve got a great champ. Henrik’s a great champion. I’m happy for him.”
Mickelson knows his golf history and admitted that the 1977 “Duel In The Sun” between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson at Turnberry crossed his mind during the round.
“It certainly crossed my mind a little bit out there today. That match when Jack and Tom went head-to-head in ’77. I was certainly thinking about that. I know I wanted to be more of Tom in that than Jack but unfortunately I understand how it feels. Bittersweet I guess.”
