Five weeks after a heart-breaking sixth runner-up finish in the U.S. Open, Phil Mickelson finally achieved a victory that for many years he wasn’t sure would be possible. Coming through the field with a brilliant final round of 66, matching the lowest of the week, Mickelson won the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield to complete the third leg of the career grand slam. After making three birdies on the back nine, Mickelson found the 18th green in two shots. After taking in the adulation from the packed grandstands that blanket the approach to the closing green, he would gently roll the birdie putt down the slope to finish at 3-under for the Championship. It was an unassailable target for the later starters, and it quickly became evident that Phil Mickelson would have his name etched onto the legendary Claret Jug and become the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Mickelson, who won the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart last week, started the day five shots behind England’s Lee Westwood, who was hoping to finally claim his first major championship victory. However, on Sunday it was Mickelson who navigated his way around Muirfield, which has brutalised the world’s best players this week. With cooler temperatures, and a stronger breeze that came from a different direction to Saturday, the East Lothian links once again provided a punishing test. Coming into Sunday, a venue that has historically been the playground of the greats provided us with one of the most illustrious 54-hole leaderboards in recent memory. But many of these established names fell victim to Muirfield’s defences, which paved the way for Phil Mickelson to rise through the pack and brilliantly claim the Claret Jug.
For two decades, many people, not least himself, had doubted whether the Californian had the skill set required to win on a links course. Mickelson readily admitted last week, when claiming victory last week on the links of Castle Stuart, that he hadn’t acquitted himself to this form of the game effectively until more recent years.
"This is such an accomplishment for me," Mickelson said. "I never knew if I'd be able to develop the game and the shots to play links golf effectively.”
It’s a curious thing that is akin to the grand slam championships in tennis. How could Pete Sampras win seven Wimbledon titles on grass, but yet never win the French Open on clay? It’s a surface that he never felt comfortable on. Although the game is the same, the way it is played is substantially very different, and that is the same when used in the context of links golf when compared to parkland courses in the United States. The game has to be played differently. To be successful on a links, you have to embrace the subtleties. You have to accept the changing conditions, and that the ball will have to be played along the ground. It requires a completely different set of skills that the players aren’t normally required to utilise. That’s what makes The Open Championship so fascinating to watch.
On Sunday at the Open Championship, Mickelson was thrilling to watch. With conditions once again difficult, with the sunshine gone and a different wind direction to what the players been accustomed to this week, the American cut the deficit by completing his front nine in 34, with birdies at the 5th and 9th. After taking his chances on those par fives, Mickelson would produce one of the finest closing stretches in the modern history of the Championship, with birdies at the 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th. It all added up to a five-under round of 66.
It was one of the truly great final rounds in major championship history, and it is certainly one that Mickelson ranks high in his own career.
“To play what is arguably the best round of my career, to putt the way I putted, to shoot the round of my life, it just feels amazing to win the Claret Jug."
Mickelson becomes the 13th different winner of the Open Championship at Muirfield, and he joins the likes of Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Ernie Els in winning at the venue 20 miles to the east of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Each winner at Muirfield since the Second World War is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, including Mickelson himself.
He also joins an illustrations group of players who have won three of the four major championships. Mickelson has won the Masters Tournament on three occasions, the PGA Championship in 2005 and now The Open Championship. The only major missing from the now five-time champion’s resume is the U.S. Open, which he has finished runner-up in on a record six occasions, including last month at Merion.
Coming a month after arguably the most devastating loss of his career, Mickelson has now claimed possibly the most significant accomplished of his remarkable career.
"The range of emotions I feel are as far apart as possible in the last month after such a tough loss. You have to be resilient in this game and take losses and use them as motivation to work harder and come back stronger."
He came back stronger, with his victory at Castle Stuart last week a signal that he could contend, and win on an, albeit “weaker”, links course. However, Castle Stuart, which has now hosted the previous three eventual Open champions the week before, allowed him utilise the skills required for Muirfield in a competitive environment, and it was a victory that would have given him an almost assured confidence that he would be able to win The Open Championship.
With hot and dry weather baking Scotland for a month, Muirfield played as one of the firmest and fastest Open venues in recent memory. Without carrying a driver all week, Mickelson played to these circumstances in the manner that he had to. In shooting a stunning final round of 66, in conditions many observers would suggest are the optimum for links golf, Mickelson claimed victory on a ‘true’ links test.
"We had such firm, fast conditions here, the epitome of links golf, to putt better than I've ever putted, to shoot the round of my life feels amazing," said the 43-year-old, who becomes the oldest winner of the Open since Roberto De Vicenzo in 1967.
"When I made that putt on the 13th to get back to level par I thought that would be a score that was going to contend and have a great opportunity to win - and I made some great putts coming in."
"I knew that it was so difficult coming down the stretch that having to make birdies to chase somebody down would be extremely difficult.”
Birdies were extremely hard to come by on those closing holes, even for Ian Poulter, who set the final day alight around the turn of his round. Starting the day at 5-over, eight back of Westwood, the Englishman channelled the spirit of Medinah by producing the most stunning rally between the 9th and 13th: Eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie sent the runner-up of five years at Birkdale right into contention. However, he wasn’t able to continue that run and eventually finished in a tie for 3rd at 1-over. Poulter can reflect upon a disappointing Saturday round of 75, but nonetheless he can take significant confidence into the PGA Championship next month.
Attention had been on Lee Westwood, who led by two shots after 54-holes. Arguably the best player of the last 15 years not to have won a major championship, Westwood, who recently turned 40, was carried onto the 1st tee by the supportive cries from a British crowd. After being announced by long-term starter Ivor Robson, who was celebrating in his 40th Open, Westwood began an 18-holes that he would hope finally see lose that unfortunate label of “nearly man”. Under the pressure, and increasing breeze, the Worksop man got off to a fine start, and held a three shot lead standing on the 7th tee. However, he would make bogey there, and then again at the 8th, before failing to make birdie at the downwind par five 9th. Too often in his round would he find trouble on an unforgiving Muirfield course. With the combination of Mickelson’s brilliant finish, and dropped shots at the 13th and 16th, Westwood’s challenge was effectively over with two holes to play. However, he would receive a warm reception from the assembled galleries at the 18th, always one of the truly great sights in sport, but it’s another major that he will have to reflect on.
"I didn't play that badly, my round came unstuck at seven, eight and nine," said Westwood. “Phil must have played really well. To birdie four out of the last six here on any day is good going. But to do it today on a breezy day with the flags blowing and in the Open Championship is exceptional."
Exceptional indeed, and although many will like to paint it as such, it would be hard to say that Westwood ‘lost’ this Open in those conditions. He can take confidence from his sixth top three finish in a major. Often, it has been his putting and short game that has left him down under pressure, but his touch around the greens was exquisite on Sunday, as it had been all week. Certainly, there will be understandable disappointment, but with the last three winners of the Open aged 42, 42 and now 43, Westwood’s window of opportunity certainly hasn’t closed.
In the end, it was Henrik Stenson who finished runner-up to Mickelson after a fine closing round of 70. Opening with a long birdie putt on the 1st, the 37-year-old, who played alongside Mickelson in the final round at Castle Stuart, completed his front nine in 34, before dropped shots at the 12th and 13th ended his effort to become the first male player from Sweden to win a major championship.
Stenson, who has battled back from a low of 230th in the world rankings, would birdie the 18th to claim second and continue his career resurgence.
"I'm very pleased with my performance over the week," he said. “And today more so than yesterday. I thought I was in a good frame of mind and played some good golf.”
Stenson after finishing third, and now second, in majors in his career, is looking forward to the PGA Championship at Oak Hill: “It's all about putting yourself in position. The more times you do that, the better the chances of winning are. I've learned a lot this week and I'm ready to be back at it next year or at the PGA Championship.”
The Swede was content, but there will be regret for Adam Scott, who was attempting to become just the eighth player to win the Masters and the Open in the same year. After four birdies between the 7th and 11th, the Australian had control of the Championship before making four straight bogeys to finish in a tie for third.
Playing alongside Adam Scott was Tiger Woods who had a frustrating day on the greens in shooting a 74 to fall in a tie for sixth. Tiger typically putts well on fast surfaces, but the greens at Muirfield had become noticeably slower in places when compared to the lightning speeds seen during the opening two rounds:
“I really had a hard time and left myself a couple of long putts early on when it was really blowing, and left them way short and didn't make those putts. I didn't really play that poorly. I hit a couple of bad shots at 10, 11, that was about it, and at three. But other than that I really hit the ball well today. I just couldn't ever get the pace of these things.”
It was a thrilling Sunday that concluded a compelling Championship. With the firm and fast fairways, Muirfield presented a test that fans and players alike haven’t seen in an Open for some years. With warm sunshine adorning the course for most of the week, it was a fantastic spectacle, with the 18th hole, with the impressive grandstands, alongside the beautifully designed clubhouse, a fine sight to behold. However, the players themselves also embraced the challenge of this brilliantly subtle course. Aside from a few suspect pin positions during the week, Muirfield was setup perfectly. It was brutally difficult, but a fair test. The players had to execute shots that they aren’t required to use at any other week of the year, and that made this particular Open a throwback to the days when shot-making and imagination was at a premium in professional golf.
This Open Championship will live long in the memory, and will be remembered as the Open when ‘Lefty’ proved the doubters wrong, including for many years himself, that he could actually win golf’s oldest and greatest championship and become one of the true all-time great of the game.
Phil Mickelson, the 142nd Open Champion.