Falling Just Short at Epic British Open Only Adds to Phil Mickelson’s Legacy

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 17, 2016

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In the end, Phil Mickelson's competitive side won out.

Upon finishing the Open Championship with a final-round 65 that left his aggregate score equal with what had been a 23-year-old tournament record, he wanted zero part of moral victories.

"No, it doesn't," he said curtly to NBC's Steve Sands, who had asked if putting up those numbers softened the blow of a runner-up finish to Henrik Stenson. "It's disappointing."

It was heat-of-the-moment acidity from a player long labeled one of the golf world's best guys, but it'd be awfully hard to blame the 46-year-old for what some might read as faulty graciousness.

Because finishing second on the sport's biggest stages is something he's grown to know all too well.

Sunday's near-miss was the 11th time in 96 major outings that he's taken silver to someone else's gold—not to mention seven thirds and a pair of fourths and fifths since turning pro in 1992.

It places him into a sole second behind Jack Nicklaus (19) on the quantitative list of all-time runners-up in majors, which won't do much to change the minds of those who paint him with the same broad brush as baseball's Atlanta Braves and football's Buffalo Bills on lists of history's most famous bridesmaids.



Before anyone blindly affixes another "he couldn't get the job done" sign to this one, here's a tip: don't.

Because it couldn't possibly be more wrong.

Rather than assuming the role of not-ready-for-primetime pretender or too-old-to-close geezer, all Mickelson did was play a bogey-free round with four birdies and an eagle, closing out a week in which his final score relative to par was good enough to outright win all but three previous Opens since 1946.

Only Nick Faldo in 1990 (minus-18), Tiger Woods in 2000 (minus-19) and Woods again in 2006 (minus-18) would have beaten his plunge to 17 under, and aside from Rory McIlroy's minus-17 a...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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