‘The best round of golf I’ve seen’

As one of the world’s leading golf coaches Butch Harmon has now helped guide four of his students towards a Claret Jug, but for the veteran American, of all the feats he has seen performed at the Majors, Phil Mickelson’s final-round dash to the most famous prize in golf beat the lot.

“The best round of golf I’ve seen,” Harmon said of Mickelson’s closing five-under-par 66 at Muirfield on Sunday, which blew past Tiger Woods and the rest of the chasing pack and then reeled in both overnight leader Lee Westwood and on-course front-runner Adam Scott to secure an Open Championship at the left-hander’s 20th attempt.

“I said when Greg Norman won in 1993 that that was the best round of golf I’ve seen, but I think this one tops it. The wind blew harder than it has and to go around when you knew you had to do it is absolutely brilliant.

“It took him a long time to understand how to play links golf. Phil plays very aggressive, but you can’t do that with links golf. He just embraced how to play on links.”

As Mickelson, 43, sank what would be the winning birdie putt on Sunday afternoon he seemed as shocked as anyone to lift the Jug. Given his frustrations on the links down the years, showcased by a 94-over-par return from his previous 19 Open starts and just two prior top-10 finishes, that was understandable, but his willingness to learn the finer points of seaside golf in the land that gave us the game makes his achievement all the more special.

It was just two years ago at Royal St George’s that a piqued Rory McIlroy, course record holder at Royal Portrush no less, said he was not prepared to change his game for the one-week-a-year challenge that The Open sets its contenders. Mickelson’s patient acceptance of the mysteries of links golf, though, should suggest to McIlroy there is plenty of time yet for the 24-year-old to appreciate the rewards of enhancing one’s skill-set.

Losing his world number two ranking to Mickelson, as the Ulsterman did, dropping down a place as a consequence of the Muirfield final standings, may accelerate what might be a lengthy process.

Speaking last Tuesday, Mickelson explained how he had added a new shot to his repertoire back almost a decade ago in order to counter his natural instinct to get the ball high in the air and bring it under the winds that frequent links courses.

“It really changed for me back in 2004 when Dave Pelz and I spent some time over here and developed a shot that feels easy to get the ball on the ground and in play off the tee; getting rid of these big misses when the ball gets up in the crosswinds and it takes it 50 yards off the edge of the fairway and into the deep heather,” Mickelson said.

“We worked on a shot that’s kind of a chip 4-wood, a chip hybrid, a chip 4-iron, where I’m just swinging it almost half pace trying to take spin and speed off of it and just get it on the ground. And it’s this low, little scooting shot that feels very easy to get it in play.

“And the miss is not anywhere near as drastic, because it’s not ever up in the wind. I would try to hit it low, but I would do it the wrong way by trying to hit it hard. And I would end up spinning it, and it would not get on the ground quick enough.”

Seven times Mickelson went to his 4-iron or hybrid off the tee on Sunday, a further five times with another mid-iron and most decidedly not reaching for his driver. He didn’t even ask faithful caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay to bother carrying one, the result of which was a six-birdie, one-bogey 66 that was the lowest final-round score to win The Open since Justin Leonard shot a 65 at Troon in 1997. And having joined an honour roll of golfing greats to have won an Open at Muirfield, including Walter Hagen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, he stands tall as the man to have shot the lowest final round ever at the East Lothian links.

Mickelson’s putting too, was extra special, his 26 putts the lowest number of the day among the leaders and seven less than his great rival Woods, without whose presence in the same period, the left-hander would surely have won more than his already impressive tally of five Majors.

“I made a bunch of putts. I really putted great. It’s as good as I ever putted in my career. I’ve been fortunately putting like this for quite some time now. Links greens have actually been, I think, the reason why I have not been in contention very often here. More so than some of the ball-striking.

“And I putted these greens phenomenal. Some of the best I’ve ever putted. And today those birdies just kind of happened. They weren’t forced. I just hit good shots.”

If there was one moment that will live long in the memory of Mickelson’s finest hour it will be the way he set up his birdie putt on the par-five 17th. He came to the tee box in a tie for the lead with Scott, playing three groups behind him and reached the green with two titanic three-woods, two-putting from around 40 feet and walking to the 18th as the outright leader, the Australian having bogeyed the 14th.

“Those two three-woods were the two best shots of the week, to get it on that green,” Mickelson said. “As I was walking up to the green, that was when I realised that this is very much my championship in my control. And I was getting a little emotional. I had to kind of take a second to slow down my walk and try to regain composure. Because not only do I still need a two-putt birdie, but I also needed to make a tough par on 18, and I fortunately made birdie on both.

“Just to capture this championship and to be part of the history of this event, and to win The Open Championship, the event I thought would be the hardest, and has been the hardest in my career to capture, to come out on top and to play my best golf, it doesn’t matter how. But certainly to birdie four of the last six is awesome.

“This is just a day and a moment that I will cherish forever. This is a really special time, and as fulfilling a career accomplishment as I could ever imagine.”