Dazzling Henrik Stenson-Phil Mickelson Duel at British Open an Instant Classic

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 17, 2016

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Unlike everything else that transpired between Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson on Sunday at Royal Troon, hardly anybody noticed a certain fleeting moment early in the round.

As fans scrambled for position and announcers began dusting off superlatives that have seldom been used in golf, the pair walked off the fourth tee box at the 145th Open Championship as Stenson absent-mindedly pitched a banana peel into the knee-high fescue.

Birdies littered his wake, too.

In the most spectacular final-round duel in modern major championship history, Stenson finished 20 under to become the first Swedish male to win a major championship. He amassed 10 birdies, obliterated a handful of notable Grand Slam records and closed with an almost indescribable 63. 

Stenson, 40, didn’t have much choice. 

Even with his record-torching pyrotechnics, he barely outlasted Mickelson, a five-time major winner who nearly kept pace and finished three shots back. Indeed, in his 25th season as a pro, Mickelson posted the lowest round of his majors career and somehow got whipped.



“I threw as much at him as I could, and he didn’t make any mistakes,” Mickelson, who edged Stenson by three shots at the same event three years earlier, told NBC Sports. “Ten birdies is just incredible play.” 

Incomprehensible is more like it—in stereo.

Just down the coast from where golf gods Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson staged what, by acclamation, has been characterized as the greatest two-man battle in the modern majors at the 1977 Open at Turnberry, the American and the Swede likewise lapped the field. 

The Watson-Nicklaus battle was called the Duel in the Sun, which was so memorable that it generated a book. 

On Sunday, J.B. Holmes finished 11 shots behind Mickelson, the greatest gap between second and third in m...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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