How Henrik Stenson created history at British Open

Coming just weeks after the entire ballot-based brouhaha about Brexit intending to enclose Britain with boundaries, it is indeed ironical to see as much excitement for the British Open. 

It is one of the oldest sport events "open" to all outstanding contenders irrespective of the countries and continents they belong to.

The beauty of golf is that both those who play and those who don’t unanimously agree that it’s a funny game. It is, indeed, a game of gods and monkeys.

Everyone knows the game owes its origins to shepherds in Scotland, and no matter how hard one practises or plays, one can only win major tournaments when the God becomes your shepherd, metaphorically speaking. 

'Blowin in the wind

In this game, the minor roll of a ball, few inches either way involving water, sand, grass, rock et al can make a decisive difference in winning and losing.

Golf is no monkey business if one has a work ethic like the legendary Ben Hogan's, but even he needed God to be his shepherd, to save his life from a near fatal road accident, and to recover and win three Majors the following year.

The link courses of Scotland are famed for testing the talents of the golfing titans, as they pose challenges of climatic variations over four days - undulating fairways interspersed with box bunkers (including the famed "Postage Stamp" hole number eight at Royal Troon) and rain and winds that can exceed 40km per hour.

Predicting the winner can be hazardous as this year's happenings proved at Royal Troon. The questions about predictions can best be answered by the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s famous song – "Blowin’ in the wind".

Golf can also be a great monkey business in a metaphorical sense: Henrik Stenson, after this year's victory, can say that finally the "monkey" is off his back (after three second and six third-placed previous finishes in Majors).

But even Stenson’s victory owes partial explanation to the God being his shepherd in benefitting from the tee timings on the first two days when the weather gods were smiling down on him as well as the USA's Phil Mickelson.

So, talent, practice and smart thinking are essential prerequisites, but one needs that "extra" help to win.

Recall Dustin Johnson’s first statement after winning the US Open just three weeks ago, that "finally the monkey is off his back" and he can compete comfortably in a relaxed frame of mind.

Jack Nicklaus the great, standing near the eighteenth green, also stated that Dustin is finally out of the box ( in fact, he won in the subsequent week), mirroring what Arnold Palmer had said about him [Niklaus] when he beat Arnie for the first time in a Major in the sixties.

No monkey business

Not only Dustin, even Michelson had long suffered the tag of the best player not to have won Majors, till he broke the jinx in 2004 by winning the Masters, when he half jumped and raised his arms as if in disbelief.

Even Stenson’s reaction was similar this Sunday, when he half squatted and half raised his arms, as was Dustin's celebration three weeks ago.

Mickelson has, by now, collected five Majors and also suffered heartbreaking runner-up finishes - six times at the US Open and British Open (this year).

Consider other victims of this monkey business: Colin Montgomerie, who, despite being World Number 1 for many years, couldn’t shake this tag off and tried his luck even at this year’s Open after qualifying; ask Sergio Garcia about missing the famous putt at British Open in 2007, and though he has equalled the record of the PGA victories of his idol Seve Ballesteros, he is still to win a Major and had only won the so-called fifth major (the Players); the list includes other notables like Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter (great record in Ryder Cup matches), Lee Westwood (despite being a world number one earlier) and Ricky Fowler.

Even Tom Kite, though enjoying the status of having secured the most top ten finishes for years in PGA, could only break the jinx in the twilight of his career by winning his only major at Pebble Beach in the '90s.

In tennis, Mark Philippoussis shared the same fate and couldn’t get the monkey off his back.

Coming to this year’s Open, the golfing gods weren’t indeed smiling down on the top four of the world rankings as they struggled.

The pre-tournament favourite, Dustin Johnson, was to "check in" after his breakthrough US Open victory followed by another, but he never really took off (finished tied ninth). 

People expected both Jordan Spieth (finished tied 30) and Jason Day (finished tied 22) to duel like last year, and Rory Mcllroy to roar after the victory in the Irish Open, but their play was below the billing.

Lo and behold, true to golf’s unlimited unpredictability, this Open witnessed an exclusive duel between two middle-aged men [Stenson (40) and Mickelson (46)] during the last two days, and the match swung in Stenson’s favour during the last four-hole stretch only. 

Stenson made history by becoming the first Swede male golfer to win a golf major. Jasper Parnevik came quite close to winning earlier.

Sweden, of course, has a famous hall of famer golfer, Annika Sorenstam (winner of 90 international tournaments), also called the female Tiger Woods. She was so dominant that she teed off a men's PGA event (Bank of America Colonial).

The duel in the sun

There are other Swedish golfers like David Lingmerth, Soren Kjeldsen and others who are currently competing. And there is our own Swede, Daniel Chopra, who can appear blonde and speak Hindi and psyche playmates in the Indian Open every year.

The victory of Stenson was remarkable for several reasons: first, though he had won the PGA FedEx jackpot in 2013, as well as the Race to Dubai, and was billed to be the next World Number 1, he didn’t quite do justice to his potential.

In the 2013 British Open, he finished as runner-up, three strokes behind to Phil Mickelson at Muirfield, and in a way returned the same cheque this year when he won by three strokes against the same opponent.

Secondly, there was earlier evidence of his game and concentration not being able to withstand the pressure, but this year, his steely resolve was a turnaround change that helped him putt over 18 feet and 50 feet on holes 14 and 15 respectively; finally, the contest brought back memories of the famous "Duel in the Sun" British Open contest at Turnberry in 1977 (I prefer to call it Jewel of a Duel) when Tom Watson claimed a one-stroke victory over his somewhat eternal British Open adversary - the great Jack Nicklaus.

And Hubert Green, who, after finishing third, but ten strokes behind, famously said, "I won the Open... those guys were playing a different tournament."

One doesn’t know what the third-placed JB Holmes in this year's Open said after finishing third, with a difference of 14 strokes behind Stenson. 

Another coincidence is that drama repeated itself at the 15^th hole after a gap of nearly 40 years when Watson sank a sixty-foot-long birdie putt to tie with Nicklaus, and this year Stenson birdied a 50 footer to take a two-stroke lead; and unlike at Turnberry where Watson won by one stroke on the last hole, at Troon, this year, the match was over at the 15^th hole.

Incidentally, Tom Watson was on the cusp of creating history by winning at the age of 59 in 2009 when his second shot at 18 overshot the green and then three putted to end in the playoff and lose to Stewart Cink.

If Mickelson had won at this Open, he would have been the oldest player after nearly 100 years to win at the Open.

Similarly, if Tom Watson would have won in 2009, he would have been the oldest to win a Major and would surely have achieved golf immortality.

Mickelson versus Stenson

The fate of Tom Watson in 2009 also seems to be a handiwork of the shepherd leading to an impression that s/he doesn’t want old people to win, lest the game loses motivation for the young aspirants!

Any sports' audience loves a contest, and golf is no different.

It doesn’t enjoy the Rory’s victories at US and PGA, in 2011 and 2012 respectively, when he pummeled the players and courses into submission and won by record margins.

The Mickelson and Stenson duel oscillated between the two - both beautifully matching  brilliant stroke making, till the thirteenth hole.

It was difficult to predict the winner at that point, and most expected Stenson to wilt and squander his supremacy due to the big match temperament issues he's displayed in few tournaments, where his game collapsed leading to his crushing the club in anger.

But in this tournament, it seemed from Stenson’s demeanour that he had consulted the tennis Swede legend Bjorn Borg, to learn a thing or two about handling match pressure.

The only time his gaze and resolve quivered when he wasn’t sure whether his three wood had reached the bunker on the final hole but quickly regained composure on receiving reassurance that his ball was perfectly placed, and the ghost of Greg Norman in 1989, while playing at the same venue (when in playoff his drive reached bunker and eventually went out of bounds), quickly disappeared. 

The Open saw a record shooting of low numbers, 63 and 65 by two final contenders, not seen before, and made the other players wonder whether they were playing the same course. 

Both showed tremendous respect and courtesies on the last two days, especially on the last day when both, in true tradition, removed caps and embraced each other with smiles.

This was a great advertisement for golf courtesies. Both showed great connect with the audiences by the constant fist handshakes while crossing tees.

In fact, the camaraderie between Mickelson and Stenson mirrored the iconic image of Nicklaus throwing his arm over Watson’s shoulder and both walking smilingly to the scorer den after the "Duel in the Sun".

Mickelson, at this age, also showed great commitment towards competing in Majors by becoming lighter by 30 pounds and re-engineering his swing. He looked like Hugh Grant of the movies.

This year, Rory McIlroy’s game has oscillated between a brilliant round interspersed with ordinary ones and that has affected his contention in the Majors ( missed cut in US Open and finished tenth in Masters).

In keeping with Tiger Wood’s vision of incorporating training with heavy weights, he has shed his baby fat and transformed  his torso into a bulging musculature, amply evident in his body hugging garment.

Sadly, his game has begun to be overshadowed by his tantrums - he had broken his club at the US Open and repeated the feat in this Open by separating the head of his three-wood when fault lay in swing of the player.

Red letter day for Sweden

It seems that he plays best when he separates himself from the field right in the beginning by building a sizeable lead. But we need to wait for that to happen.

However, in all likelihood, the emergence of players like Jason, Dustin, Jordan, Ricky, Patrick et al may not allow the comfort zone that was available in 2012 or 2013.

But in golf we can’t say anything with finality.

Though Johnson (Dustin) was to make waves at the Open, two Brits with names Johnson were also doing the same: Boris Johnson surprisingly became the foreign secretary and another, namely Andrew "Beef" Johnston, who finished at sole eighth (was third after four holes on final day) became an instant celebrity.

He endeared himself to the British public by his demeanour, ceaseless smile, handshakes while moving from one tee to another and his flowing beard (soon to reach the length of WG Grace's).

Never in history of the Open had the winner shot 63 and won with minus 20, in red numbers. Not even Tiger Woods; Jack Nicklaus and other greats have done that and this alone will entitle Stenson an immortality in the annals of golf history for some time to come.

Even Jack Nicklaus has tweeted that the duel display was better than a "Duel in the Sun".

For the first time in the tradition of the major tournaments, on the fourth day, the red colour was dominant in a completely different way.

Both Stenson and Mickelson's attire was dominated by the black colour and shared the fact of sponsorships coming from big financial companies like KPMG, Barclays and Mutual of Omaha. Interestingly, Stenson had the word "Boss" emblazoned on his t-shirt and actually was anointed the Boss of the British Open this year.

The dominance of red colour on Sunday was reduced as there were hardly any players with red t-shirts.

In a way, as it were, both Stenson and Mickelson, due to their dominant play, had red-flagged the rest of the players to not come anywhere near their contest.

Metaphorically, their dominance was so strong that their combined score of 37 in red numbers was less by just 1, after combining the total numbers of all players (15) in red numbers. Surely, their contest would qualify to be written in red letters.

Though Stenson stated that his victory was for Sweden, he could also say that this victory is for himself.

And the next summer he would be welcomed at Birkdale as the iconic yellow scoreboard at the Open read at the end of the match.