Phil Mickelson has been able to overcome the disappointment of letting the US Open at Merion slip through his fingers to shoot a final round of 66 to win the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield in Gullane, Scotland.
Only two major titles were left for ‘Lefty’ to collect and he has seemed to have embraced links golf over the past two weeks capturing the Scottish Open and British Open double in consecutive weeks.
He began the final round five shots behind 54-hole leader Lee Westwood but a 32 on the back nine which equalled the low back nine score of the tournament was enough for Mickelson to win by 3-shots.
“The range of emotions I feel are as far apart as possible in the last month after such a difficult loss in the US Open,” Mickelson said. “To win a tournament here that I wasn’t sure if I would ever win feels amazing.”
“This is such an accomplishment for me. I just never knew if I could develop the game and the shots required to play links golf effectively. To play the best round of arguably my career today, to putt better then I’ve ever putted and to shoot the round of my life here just feels amazing to win this Claret Jug.”
“When you work for a guy for 21 years, and you watch him play the best round of golf he’s ever played, it’s pretty cool,” Mickelson’s caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay said, fighting back the tears.
Australian, Adam Scott held the lead at one stage early on the back nine but four straight bogeys from 13 to 16 saw him suffer a similar fate as last year. Overnight leader, Lee Westwood struggled on the front nine as he failed to hit a fairway and despite finding the short grass a few times on the inward nine he was still unable to get his round kickstarted shooting a 4-over round of 75.
At one stage it looked as if Ian Poulter’s +1 total may have been enough but despite shooting a final round of 4-under the Englishman had left himself too much ground to chase. Tiger Woods faltered in the final round shooting 3-over in an un-Tiger like Sunday performance.
If you asked me a few weeks ago whether I thought Mickelson could win the British Open I would have probably said no, but last week at Castle Stuart he seemed to have a new found attitude to the links courses, and with his putting back on track he showed just how much he still has to give.
Now, for him to win the US Open title that he has come so close to on six occasions.
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