Weekend Wrap - Hammerin' Hank Edition

Did you see any of it?  If not, more's the pity....

I had a match yesterday at the oddball time of 2:00, and was thus able to see most of the heavyweight title bout....  I ran over to the club as they were playing up No. 16, but caught Phil's near miss and Henrik's clincher.  Or at least I thought it was the clincher... The obligatory game story:

Who saw that coming? Who saw Phil Mickelson, at 46, the winner of nothing more

meaningful than a Tuesday practice-round bragging-rights match since his 2013 British Open victory, coming to the stern links of Royal Troon, playing four days of nearly perfect golf, shooting 17 under par, and losing by three? 

But that's what happened here on Sunday. 

In one of the greatest displays of golf this championship has ever seen, Henrik Stenson, at 40, became the first Swede to claim a men's major title with his victory at the 145th British Open. The final round was a stunning display of mano a mano golf, as Stenson and Mickelson, going off in the last twosome of the day, completely distanced themselves from the rest of the field and matched each other almost shot for shot in what amounted to golf theater as its most exhilarating.

To their credit, NBC did....They had both Maltbie and Feherty walking with the final group on Sunday, not even pretending that any of the first 35 games might matter.  Oh, they milked Beef for entertainment value, but that was mere filler while the two gladiators walked to their balls.

 Peter Bukowski runs through some of the numbers:

• Stenson's 20 under ties Jason Day's record for score relative to par at a major. Day set the record in last year's PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. Like Day, this was also Stenson's first major win. Likewise, that gives Stenson the Open record for score relative to par, besting Tiger Woods's 2000 tournament at St. Andrews (19 under). That had also been the major championship record until Day broke it in 2015.

• While Stenson merely tied the major record for score relative to par, he posted the lowest aggregate score ever in a major at 262. Royal Troon is a par-71 course, whereas Whistling Straits is a par-72.

And there were stats for the loser, maybe runner-up is more appropriate, as well:

In fact, for a tournament that's been around since 1860, Mickelson's 17-under score would have been good enough to win every other British Open except for four. 

Only Rory McIlroy (17 under, 2014), Tiger Woods (19 under, 2000; 18 under, 2006) and Nick Faldo (18 under, 1990) won with scores of 17 under or better.

OK, so Phil's score was more under par than Willie Park's in 1860, when they played a twelve-hole course.... I'm sure that will console him, though I'm also pretty sure there wasn't even a par for that Prestwick course....

Though had I seen this, I might have tried to get a quick wager down on the Swede:

Phil with the full Yani.... You never want to go full Yani!

The Tour Confidential panel assesses the historical context:

Alan Shipnuck: Instant classic. Nicklaus and Watson were proven commodities by Turnberry, Tiger was Tiger by Valhalla, but for this to be Henrik’s first major win is legendary stuff. 

Cameron Morfit: I agree, Alan. This one was impressive. Given all the reasons to doubt these guys, especially with the way Phil was starting to spray it Saturday, I wondered if they would go the other way, like Jason Gore and Retief Goosen at the 2005 U.S. Open. Boy did that not happen. What a terrific show.

I think what made it so compelling is that they both needed it so badly, and were able to summon such extraordinary golf under that pressure.  The couple of mistakes that were made only heightened the drama,   See what you think of this:

Jessica Marksbury: Is it crazy to say that Henrik’s final round wasthe best performance ever? I mean, how long have we waited for someone to tie Johnny’s mark of 63 in a final round at a major? Especially when his nearest competitor—a Hall of Famer with five majors to his zero—nearly matched him! I was worried that this Open might be remembered as a bit boring after Saturday’s round. No one really stepped up to the plate to challenge Henrik and Phil with a super-low score, and a man-to-man duel on Sunday can easily become a war of attrition. But to have two players separate themselves from the field—by more than 10 shots!—with such epic final-round performances was just unreal. This could be an open-the-floodgates win for Henrik.

First, just like the best 59 was Geiberger's, because it hadn't been done before, Johnny deserves pride of place.  And a lush, green Troon is hardly Oakmont, but I'll just note that shooting 63 after sleeping on the lead, especially when you've a well-earned rep for getting a little hinky, is quite a thing....  As noted in Phil's presser, he would have taken his 65 and assumed he'd be the one winning by three.

As for Jessica's last premise, we always say that, but.... did anyone see DJ this week?

The other aspect that made this fun, very much in the mold of the Duel in the Sun, was that these two guys obviously know and like each other.  Henrik is apparently quite the card, despite his Teutonic demeanor and stern demeanor on the course.  This is from the Swede's presser:

OK, so Henrik had a little help. In a post-round press conference filled with laughs, the newly minted Champion Golfer of the Year was asked to rank Sunday's win among his life achievements -- with the reporter mentioning milestones such as his first kiss and passing his driver's test. 

"Yeah, given that I failed my driver's test probably as many times I was second or third at major championships, that one has to be higher than this, of course," Stenson deadpanned.

Phil was predictably gracious in his presser, though he cut right to the core of why he needed this one:

Pressed a few times, Mickelson did his best to not sound like someone who has experienced more surreal second-place finishes than any golfer in modern history. 

“I don't look back on anything and say, I should have done this differently or that. I played what I feel was well enough to win this championship by a number of strokes and yet I got beat by three strokes. You know, it's not like I have decades left of opportunities to win majors, so each one means a lot to me. And I put in my best performance today. Played close to flawless golf and was beat.”

 This answer from Phil wasn't his most articular, but gets at an important distinction:

The normally glib and opinionated Mickelson warmed up by the end of the session to compliment the R&A’s approach to course setup. 

“I think that R&A sets the golf course up to be as fair as possible and to try to kind of identify who the best player is regardless of what the score is given the conditions and so forth. Sometimes it's 20-under. Sometimes people don't want that many under par. But the fact is if somebody plays some incredible golf, that's what it should do. You shouldn't have to mess with the course too much to try to control the score. 

“The USGA has it in their mind that the score needs to be par, so no matter what lines they have to cross to get there, that's got to be the standard, and it kind of disregards and doesn't take into account the difference in talent level and abilities that the players of today now have.”

It's the nature of a links, and the reason why many of us love their game.  Depending upon the nature of the growing season and the weather during the event, the courses change dramatically.  The R&A simply can't set their courses up to be too penal, because high winds will render them unplayable.

But at the same time, let's remember that third place was six under....  But kudos also to the R&A for not cutting the greens when necessary to avoid the risk of wind-related stoppages as we had last year at St. Andrews.  

Before we move on, what is it with Henrik Stenson disrobing on the golf course?  Remember this from Doral in 2009:

And that was with Fannie on the bag....Sir Nick never created that kind of hostile work environment...

Shack got caught in the middle of yesterday's exhibitionism, so let's let him tell the tale:

No moment was more bizarre than the 17th when Stenson arrived at the tee, fresh off a key birdie from the native rough left of the green to maintain his two stroke lead. As fast as he'd walked up to the tee, Stenson immediately walked back down the tight-mow walkway toward the New York Post's Mark Cannizzaro and myself who were standing against the large scoreboard pondering the drama that had unfolded. 

"Shield me," Stenson said to us as he had just finished taking off the shirt, revealing his abs to the crowd, and leaving him with just his under armor.

Stenson asked if he could moved behind us with the scoreboard as his backside shield, with only us and a day-glo clad policeman as his fronting shield, and then bared chest as he took off his undershirt while we awkwardly looked forward. 

"I'm a little hot," he joked, a nice duel reference to the temperature and his ninth birdie of the day.

Here's what it looked like: 

That's Shack on the far right, not even trying to not stare at Henrik's manboobs....

Just a great show from Phil's opening 63 to Henrik's topper....

Some random notes and udder stuff:

Did anyone but me sense the irony when Phil was asked about the comparison the Nicklaus-Watson in '77?  Phil noted that he wanted to play the role of Tom in that revival....  You know Tom Watson, the guy in whose back Phil planted the shiv in that Gleneagles presser....  Just sayin'.

In our recurring Golfers Behaving Badly series, we have Thomas Pieters realigning the shaft of his club:

In all fairness, when your seventh shot on a hole is bad, whatcha gonna do....And cementing his lifetime achievement award in the category is Rory, though Shack has some constructive criticism that I do hope the young man takes to heart.  

Not just a nickname?  No, it's a way of life.... What would you stamp on your wedges?

Beefsanity: Catch It!

Does the 5-second rule apply in golf?  Mark this date on your calendars, because I actually agree with Sir Nick on something...  And while later reports indicate that it was a sticker off his hat, I don't think we should let the facts get in the way of a good story.