Phil Mickelson won his first British Open Championship on Sunday at Muirfield, coming back from five strokes to win his first title there and his fifth career major, coming in ahead of names like Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood to win the Claret Jug.
Mickelson remained in contention throughout the weekend at Muirfield and after an amazing final day of play, Lefty finished ahead of Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood to win the British Open Championship, finishing at five under to win his first Claret Jug and fifth major championship.
The American left-hander took advantage of a jittery last round from overnight leader Lee Westwood by firing a five-under-par 66 for a three-under tally of 281 on a cool and breezy day on the east coast of Scotland.
Mickelson was the beneficiary of a fortunate bounce with his approach shot at the last and after rolling in a 10-foot birdie putt he raised both arms in the air before hugging Jim 'Bones' Mackay as his long-serving caddie wiped away some tears.
Muirfield once again lived up to its reputation for providing great champions as the popular Californian picked up the fifth major title of his career.
Woods showed up at Muirfield early to practice for the championship with girlfriend Lindsey Vonn in tow and that clearly helped him early on in the tournament. Woods started off very sharp with a two under par on Thursday in the first round and that set him up for a nice day Friday, especially after the last time he played at Muirfield when he put up the worst score of his career. The second round saw some tough play on the greens but Woods was able to recover to finish even on the day and that left him squarely in the hunt heading into the weekend. Rory McIlroy did not fare so well on the first day, finishing eight over par before eventually missing the cut.
Woods put himself in better position after 54 holes at a major than he has in nearly four years and to get himself in first place he had to do something he never did by coming from behind. On Saturday he kept himself along with Westwood and was tied for the lead at one point and he did an excellent job early on the greens and hit well off the tee on the back nine. Woods won all of his 14 major championships with the lead or at least a share of the lead after 54 holes and coming into the final day a number of players who already have won majors were in striking distance of the lead, including Angel Cabrera, Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson.
Westwood went into the final day with a two stroke lead while trying to win his first championship after converting a birdie on the 17th hole and Mahan put in a solid day to be one of the three players under par for the board on Sunday morning. Many players complained about the difficulty of the course, but the top players all seemed to be able to handle the conditions, including Mickelson, Woods and Westwood and the weather was mostly cooperative after what happened at the US Open.
Fourteen-times major champion Woods, bidding to end a five-year wait for a win in one of golf's big four events, could be heard muttering darkly to himself throughout the round as he slid to a 74 to take a share of sixth place on 286.
Mickelson, who won last week's Scottish Open, said his triumph made up for the disappointment of losing out to Britain's Justin Rose in the last round of the U.S. Open a month ago.
"The range of emotions are as far apart as possible following the loss at Merion," added the 43-year-old.
"To win here feels amazing but you have to be resilient in this game, you have to accept the losses as well as you accept the victories.
"This is such an accomplishment for me. I just never knew I could develop the game that I needed to play links golf effectively."
STRAIGHT BIRDIES
Mickelson was on the fringes of contention on the front nine but suddenly lit the blue touch paper on his game with birdies at the 13th and 14th.
The world number five, watched by wife Amy and his children, then delivered a dazzling coup de grace on the 575-yard 17th.
Mickelson reached the green with two crunching blows, crying 'Go, Baby, Go' as his second shot came to rest on the green, and the title was effectively secured when he two-putted for his sixth birdie of the round.
While the American was buzzing, Westwood felt deflated after wasting a glorious opportunity to end his wait for a breakthrough major victory at the 62nd attempt.
Hundreds of British fans started streaming towards the exits with the Englishman on the 17th hole.
The crowds, who had to contend with the coolest temperatures of the week and winds gusting up to 25mph, cheered patriotically for Westwood early on but the atmosphere fell flat around the turn as their man started to struggle.
Here is the rest of the PGA Schedule:
This Week
DATE TOURNAMENT TV DEFENDING CHAMP PURSE
Jul 25 - Jul 28 RBC Canadian Open
Glen Abbey Golf Club, Oakville,Ontario, Canada
Upcoming Tournaments
DATE TOURNAMENT TV DEFENDING CHAMP PURSE
Aug 1 - Aug 4
Tickets World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational
Firestone Country Club, Akron, OH CBS/TGC Keegan Bradley $8,750,000
Aug 1 - Aug 4
Tickets Reno-Tahoe Open
Montreux Golf & Country Club, Reno, NV TGC Grant Waite $3,000,000
Aug 8 - Aug 11
MAJOR:
Tickets PGA Championship
Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, NY CBS/TNT Rory McIlroy $8,000,000
Aug 15 - Aug 18
Tickets Wyndham Championship
Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, NC CBS/TGC Sergio Garcia $5,300,000
Aug 22 - Aug 25
Tickets The Barclays
Liberty National Facility, Jersey City, NJ CBS/TGC Nick Watney $8,000,000
Aug 30 - Sep 2
Tickets Deutsche Bank Championship
TPC of Boston, Norton, MA NBC/TGC Rory McIlroy $8,000,000
Sep 12 - Sep 15
Tickets BMW Championship
NBC/TGC Rory McIlroy $8,000,000
Sep 19 - Sep 22
Tickets TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola
East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, GA NBC/TGC Brandt Snedeker $8,000,000
Oct 3 - Oct 6
Tickets The Presidents Cup
Muirfield Village Golf Club, Dublin, OH NBC/TGC
