Mickelson Masters Muirfield as American Seals Open Triumph with Stellar Final Round to Leave Westwood and Tiger Trailing in his Wake
Phil Mickelson has won The Open Championship after carding a brilliant 66 on the final day at Muirfield. The American won by three shots from Swede Henrik Stenson with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Adam Scott tied for third.
Daily Mail UK, 21 July 2013
Mickelson goes Route 66 to join Legends... as he Denies Westwood at a Major once again
What is it about Lee Westwood that brings out the best in Phil Mickelson? Three years ago he played the tournament of a lifetime to deny the Englishman at the Masters and yesterday he was at it again, piecing together the best round of his career to come from five shots behind to claim The Open for the first time.
Mickelson was clearly emotional at the finish and no wonder, for this was the realisation of a long and hard 20-year journey to win the game’s oldest major.
‘I didn’t know if I would ever be able to develop the skills to win this championship, let alone play the best round of my life,’ he said.
Fitting: Phil Mickelson is the winner of the 142nd Open Championship
Quality: Phil Mickelson sealed his first Open victory - a tournament he has always been desperate to win
Incredible: The US golfer's back nine sprint - including his winning put on the 18th will go down in history
All those Opens where he would balloon the ball into the air and be mocked by the gods were banished from the memory as he showed the value of experience, a healthy work ethic and a willingness to learn.
A sublime 66 that will go down in the annals alongside the great Open rounds was enough to give him a three-stroke triumph at Muirfield over the Swede Henrik Stenson with Lee Westwood, Adam Scott and a charging Ian Poulter finishing in a tie for third spot.
That is five majors now for Mickelson, and a career that looked at one point as if it would fall scandalously short when it came to the big prizes is on course to deliver a haul commensurate with his wondrous gifts.
Alas, it looks as if the same will never be said of poor Westwood, the eternal nearly man, who had begun the day with a two-shot lead.
Not again: Lee Westwood reflects after the 18th on another opportunity spurned at a major
Couldn't do it without you: Mickelson celebrates with caddy Jim Mackay (above) and poses with the trophy with long-serving coach Butch Harmon (below)
As so often with his close shaves, it was a truly great player at the height of his powers who denied him. But at the same time the 40-year-old Westwood will not look back upon this final round with any satisfaction.
A score of 75 is a fair reflection of how poorly he played and by the time he got to the 18th and an enormously sympathetic hand, the great British summer of sport felt a long way away, or at least 400 miles south.
This was an Open that ended up being a mirror image of the United States version at Merion a month ago. On that occasion, it was Mickelson who was feeling regretful and an Englishman who was pulling off telling shots down the stretch that will become part of his career highlight reel.
Here, Mickelson put in a finish that replicated the majesty of Justin Rose’s play on that occasion, as he finished birdie, birdie to complete a five-under-par round worthy of winning any Claret Jug.
No, it’s not you: Open champions really are getting older, with the names of two 42-year-olds in Darren Clarke and Ernie Els being followed on to the most famous trophy in the game by the 43-year-old Leftie.
Now, the man who had never won in Europe until last week has completed an unprecedented double after claiming the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart followed by this, the main event.
Suddenly, his greatest weakness — the fact he had achieved so little outside America — has been addressed in spectacular fashion. On the list of majors won, he’s now level with the late, great Seve Ballesteros, the player he grew up idolising and on whose game he has successfully modelled his own.
They're getting older: 43-year-old Mickelson followed up other 40's men Darren Clarke and Ernie Els
One of the greats: The late Seve Ballesteros is one of Mickelson's idols, winning the Open three times
The whole gang: Phil celebrates with his family, both golfing and blood-related
Nice touch: Muirfield organisers send a message to the winner on the scoreboard
Mickelson, mind, was a long way down the list of contenders as Muirfield awoke in a state of feverish excitement at the prospect of a Westwood win, or Tiger Woods ending his five-year drought in the majors.
Not for the first time during this lean stretch, when play got underway Woods proved a long way short of the awesome force of old and there are now serious doubts that the 14-time major winner will get much nearer to Jack Nicklaus’s total of 18.
Instead, the early excitement came from the effervescent Poulter. Laughed at in the Sunday papers for having the temerity to think he could make up an eight-shot deficit, he showed why it pays never to count him out with one of his Ryder Cup-esque charges around the turn. An eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie run and suddenly the cheers greeting his every holed putt could be heard hundreds of yards away. In the end, a costly bogey at the 16th prevented him from posting the level-par score that always looked the minimum ask.
Westwood had a three-shot lead after six holes. Just as at the PGA Championship at Wentworth in May, it was at that point he threw in a pair of sloppy bogeys. At the par five ninth, he never came close to the seemingly gimme birdie on offer and the alarm bells were starting to sound.
Nearly: Ian Poulter (above) put together a fine round of 67, though Tiger Woods (below) had a frustrating day
There was still little sign of Mickelson. Instead it was Scott who hit the front, just as he did at Royal Lytham last year. This time we thought he might show what winning a green jacket does for a player but again like 12 months ago, he threw in four successive bogeys to derail his challenge.
It was at the difficult par-three 13th that the eventual winner began his dramatic progression. A five-iron left him 20 feet from the flag. ‘I knew that was the one I had to make to give me some momentum,’ he said.
Another birdie followed at the 14th and he stood on the par-five 17th, played into the wind on this day, tied for the lead. Hardly a player all day had reached this forbidding green in two but Mickelson did with what he later described as the two best three-woods of his career.
Didn't see that coming: Mickelson seemed to come from nowhere to win
Didn't see that coming: Mickelson seemed to come from nowhere to win
Still he was not finished, as two beautiful shots to the 18th hole left him with a 12ft birdie putt. He barely touched it as it ran down a fault line in the green and turned inexorably into the hole.
He raised his arms in triumph and described it as the most fulfilling moment of his career. Only five players in the history of the game have won all four legs of the Grand Slam and Mickelson has now won three of them. The one that eludes him is the US Open, the event in which he has finished runner-up on no fewer than six occasions.
Once this was a career that was as much about melodramatic thrills and spills as actual achievement, but winning at Muirfield has changed all that.
Out on his own: The finishing overall scores
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