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This Day In Sports…July 17, 2016, 10 years ago today:
Forty-year-old Henrik Stenson beats Phil Mickelson by three strokes in a riveting final round of the Open Championship to become the first Swedish golfer—Nordic golfer, for that matter—to win a major title. Stenson fired a 63 on Sunday at Royal Troon, equaling the best final-round score ever by the winner of a major. At 20 under par, Stenson tied the mark for lowest score in major championship history relative to par and set the record for lowest overall score at 264. The 46-year-old Mickelson, a five-time major winner in his 25th season as a pro, posted his lowest career score in a major at 267—and still lost.
Stenson’s three-shot victory belied the dynamic of his final-round “High Noon at Troon” duel with Mickelson. The pair had left the rest of the field in the dust and battled head-to-head. Some likened it to the historic “Duel in the Sun” between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at the 1977 Open Championship. Stenson and Mickelson began the day separated by a stroke, and Lefty caught the Swede on Railway, the par-4 that sits alongside a rail line and is considered one of the most difficult holes in golf. Stenson bogeyed the hole, sending all the momentum Mickelson’s way in what was now a tie.
The 15th hole was a crusher, though. Mickelson, down by a stroke again, watched Stenson pull his tee shot into the rough. When they got to the green, Stenson was forced to putt uphill from the fringe. Miraculously, he drained a deflating 50-foot birdie putt to take control with a two-shot lead. Stenson followed that with birdie putt from 51 feet on No. 16 while Mickelson would barely miss an eagle putt. Mickelson finished with a bogey-free 65 in the final round. After the tournament, he said it was the best golf he had ever played—and not won.
Stenson’s win marked the middle of a stretch of seven straight majors to see a first-time champion. Preceding Stenson, there was Jason Day in the 2015 PGA Championship, Danny Willett in the 2016 Masters and Dustin Johnson in the 2016 U.S. Open. Stenson was followed by Jimmy Walker in the 2016 PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia in the 2017 Masters and Brooks Koepka in the 2017 U.S. Open. Jordan Spieth snapped the streak by grabbing his third major title at the 2017 Open Championship. The victory at Royal Troon remains Stenson’s only one in a major.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
