Magnificent Mickelson’s Muirfield of dreams
For once, no grin radiated across his face – that would come later – and nor was there that twinkle in the eyes that has won the hearts of golf fans across the globe. Instead there was a thousand-yard stare and almost a grimace that spoke of shellshock at the achievement of a long-held yet seemingly unattainable ambition.
In the most difficult conditions of this week at Muirfield, the 43-year-old American had completed a scintillating five-under-par final round of 66 he would describe as “probably the best of my career” and that with eight players still out on the course was already good enough to deliver the Claret Jug at the 20th attempt.
A month on from a heartbreaking sixth US Open runner-up finish, to Justin Rose, Mickelson found compensation on a Scottish links, adding his name to Hagen, Cotton, Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Watson, Faldo and Els as an Open champion at Muirfield.
It is his fifth major championship victory and as the only player to finish the tournament under par after 72 holes, having come from five shots off Lee Westwood’s lead at the start of the day to close three shots ahead of Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, his place in that elite group in no way diminishes its prestige.
“Probably the best round of my career,” Mickelson said as he accepted the Claret Jug, which also comes with a first prize of £945,000 (€1.1 million), “probably the most fulfilling moment of my career, as I wasn’t sure this was something I would be able to do.”
Mickelson had finished third at Troon in 2004 but it was not until his 17th appearance in the championship in 2011, when runner-up to Darren Clarke, that he came alive to the belief he could successfully master the complexities of links golf.
“It took me a while to figure it out,” he admitted last night. “It’s been the last eight or nine years I’ve started to playing it more effectively, I’ve started to hit the shots more effectively. But even then it’s so different than what I grew up playing. I always wondered if I would develop the skills needed to win this championship.”
Last Sunday’s Scottish Open victory at Castle Stuart, though, confirmed the belief, delivering as it did his first win in 22 attempts on a links and Mickelson defied the statisticians by completing back-to-back victories seven days later, the only golfer to achieve the double.
The Californian joked earlier in the week that he had a “hate/love” relationship with the links, loathing the Open experience at first before coming to love the unique challenges it poses, particularly to American golfers reared for the most part on parkland courses.
Yet this was no fluke. Mickelson may have gatecrashed a party meant for England’s Lee Westwood, who had held a two-shot overnight lead but shot a four-over 75.
But if was not to be the sentimental home favourite then the massed banks of spectators lining the approach to the 18th green could not have asked for a more entertaining, charismatic and worthy champion of the links.
Yet what started as the round that would finally deliver a Major to Westwood gradually developed into an epic contest for the title.
Mickelson headed into the back nine exactly on target at level par, having birdied the fifth and ninth to place him a shot behind leaders Westwood and Adam Scott, in a tie for third with Stenson, Hunter Mahan and first-round leader Zach Johnson, with Ian Poulter in the clubhouse on one over having posted the target with a four-under 67 and Tiger Woods having fallen from one under to two over.
He bogeyed the 10th but, buoyed by a birdie on 13, Mickelson spent the next five holes gliding towards the summit, his momentum gathering pace as he birdied the 14th and those around him were losing their nerve. Scott had gone clear at two under when he birdied 11 and when Mickelson birdied 13 he pulled level at one under with Westwood, who was moving in the other direction and would fall further behind with bogeys at the 13th and 16th.
Scott, too, went into a dramatic slide, bogeying 13, 14, 15 and 16, eerily reminiscent of his implosion at Lytham last year when he blew a four-shot lead over the last four holes . Rather than letting others lose it, Mickelson was intent on winning The Open his way and he produced his best golf of the day to birdie the final two holes, sinking a 10-foot putt at the last to open up a three-shot lead that would become his winning margin.
“This is just an amazing feeling winning this great championship,” he said. “And to play probably the best round of my career and hit some of the best shots that I’ve ever hit. Certainly I putted better than I’ve ever putted.”
Stenson had finished third behind the left-hander at Castle Stuart and he improved a place a week later with a closing one-under 70, with Poulter, Westwood and Scott, who finished with a 72, settling for a tie for third on one over and Zach Johnson, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Woods, in his 17th consecutive Major with a victory, a further shot back in a tie for sixth.
After the first two Majors of the year went to 32-year-olds Scott and Justin Rose, Westwood can take heart from the fact that the Claret Jug has been presented to golfers aged 42 (Darren Clarke and Ernie Els) and 43 (Mickelson). At 40, Westwood clearly still has time on his side and as has been the case in his previous six top-three Major finishes, he was philosophical about his latest near-miss.
“I’m not too disappointed. I don’t really get disappointed with golf anymore,” Westwood said. “I didn’t really play well enough. I didn’t play badly, but I didn’t play great.”
Westwood has been overhauled like that before, when he led after 54 holes at the 2010 Masters, Mickelson again the usurper and this time the American completed the third leg of a career grand slam, just that elusive US Open title denying him a place in the pantheon alongside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Woods.
“I think that if I’m able to win the US Open and complete the career grand slam, I think that that’s the sign of the complete great player. And I’m a leg away. And it’s been a tough leg for me,” Mickelson joked. “But I think that’s the sign. I think there’s five players that have done that. And those five players are the greats of the game. You look at them with a different light. And if I were able to ever win a US Open, and I’m very hopeful that I will, but it has been elusive for me. And yet this championship has been much harder for me to get.”
