Runner-up stunned by Phil’s thrills
GULLANE, Scotland - Even after he made back-to-back bogeys to fall out of a tie for the lead, Henrik Stenson never thought he was out of the British Open.
Ian Poulter had posted a 1-over 285, and Stenson was 1 over with five holes to play.
He just had no idea Phil Mickelson in the group ahead of him was piling up so many birdies down the stretch Sunday at Muirfield.
“All of a sudden, I saw he was 2 under and I was three back with only two holes to go,” Stenson said. “So I said to my caddie when I made the birdie on 17, ‘Maybe I can hole the second shot on 18 and get into a playoff.’”
Wishful thinking. Stenson could hear the crowd roar for another Mickelson birdie on the 18th that put Lefty at 3-under 281. The Swede with the slick sense of humor turned to his caddie again and told him, “A hole-in-one is pushing it, I think.”
Stenson finished strong with a par, and his consolation prize was a silver medal. He closed with a 70 to finish three shots behind, alone in second place, for his best finish in a major.
Stenson twice tied for third in the Open, though he was six shots behind Padraig Harrington at Royal Birkdale in 2008, and eight shots behind Louis Oosthuizen at St. Andrews two years later.
This time, he has a serious contender, one of four players to have at least a share of the lead on Sunday at Muirfield.
“Very happy with the performance,” said Stenson, who moved up to No. 20 in the world rankings. “We’re getting closer. I’ve got two thirds and now a second. We all know what we’re longing for.”Westwood wonders
While Phil Mickelson was hoisting the claret jug on the 18th green to roars and applause, Lee Westwood was about 40 yards away in the corner of a press tent, explaining how yet another major championship got away from him.
“I wanted to be there on the 18th green right now, that’s pretty obvious,” Westwood said, briefly turning his eyes to a nearby TV screen to see Mickelson parading the trophy.
Seeking a first major and to wipe away his “nearly man” tag, Westwood began the final round of the British Open with a two-stroke lead, which increased to three stokes after six holes. But he shot a 4-over 75 to finish four behind Mickelson, tied for third with Ian Poulter and Adam Scott.
“I’m not too disappointed,” Westwood said. “I don’t really get disappointed with golf anymore.”Scottish proud
No winning news conference at the British Open is complete without at least one provincial question.
One Scottish reporter had asked Phil Mickelson a week ago where he ranked his victory in the Scottish Open against all the other wins in his career. With the claret jug at his side, the reporter asked him to rank the British Open against the others.
“Winning Castle Stuart, at the time, was a big win for me,” Mickelson said. “But in seven days, it has gone down considerably.”
Another writer asked Mickelson if he had any Scottish heritage in his surname.
“I don’t know,” Mickelson said, and then said in his best (or worst) Scottish accent, “I don’t know. Maybe a wee bit.”
Scott stumbles
For the second year in a row Australian Adam Scott held the lead on the back nine of the British Open; for the second year in a row he left without his name on the claret jug.
The green jacket he won in between at the Masters couldn’t ease the sting of this one.
“I let a great chance slip, I felt, during the middle of the round and that’s disappointing,” said Scott, who blew a four-shot lead with four holes to play last year at Lytham. “Had I played a little more solid in the middle of that back nine I could have had a chance coming in.”
As it turned out, no one had much of a chance because Phil Mickelson closed so strongly he likely would have won the Open no matter what Scott or any of his fellow competitors did. But three consecutive bogeys on the back nine sealed the fate of the Masters champion, eliminating him from contention before he even had a shot at making a late run.
Sports, Pages 17 on 07/22/2013