The trend of first time Major winners in 2016 continues as Henrik Stenson broke through to win the 2016 Open Championship for his first Major title at the age 0f 40. It was an epic battle between Henrik and Phil Mickelson as they separated themselves from the field at Royal Troon.
Heading into the final round, Henrik had a one shot lead over Phil. A three-putt on the first hole led to a bogey for Henrik while Phil birdied for a two shot swing. That woke Henrik up rather quickly as he would go on to birdie five of his next seven holes. Throughout the rest of the final round, Henrik and Phil would match each other shot for shot. In the end, Henrik was just slightly better, shooting a final round 8-under 63 with 10 birdies to best Phil, who also had a very good round with a score of 6-under 65. His finish of 17-under par would have won or forced a playoff in 141 of 145 Opens all-time!
“It’s probably the best I’ve played and not won. I think that’s probably why it’s disappointing in that I don’t have a point where I can look back and say, I should have done that or had I only done this. I played a bogey-free round of 65 on the final round of a major, usually that’s good enough to do it, and I got beat.” – Phil Mickelson
With this victory, Stenson set a number of records. His total score of 264 is the lowest ever in a Major Championship. He also becomes the second player to win a Major with a final round of 63 (Johnny Miller at the 1973 US Open) and is one of two players since 2000 to win their first Major title after turning 40 years old – the other to do so was Darren Clarke at the 2011 Open Championship. And just to really understand how well Henrik played this week, he outplayed the field scoring average on the inward nine by a combined 18 strokes this week!
The 2016 Open Championship was a duel that would go down as one of the best in Open Championship history. Third place finished a distant 11 shots behind Phil Mickelson and 14 shots behind Henrik Stenson, who tied Jason Day’s record of 20-under par at a Major. Other notable finishes in the 145th Open Championship were Steve Stricker, who finished 4th while Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia both finished T5.
Source: PGA TOUR
