Golf usually isn't a fistfight. Most Sundays on the PGA Tour or at a Major involve a leaderboard shifting like sand, where someone eventually stumbles and someone else survives. But the 2016 Open Championship at Troon was different. Honestly, it was a glitch in the matrix of professional golf.
If you weren't watching that July at Royal Troon, it’s hard to describe the sheer absurdity of what Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson did to the rest of the field. They didn't just play the course; they dismantled it. By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, everyone else on the planet was playing a completely different tournament.
It was a two-man demolition derby in the rain and wind of the Ayrshire coast.
The Setup: Two Titans and a Coastal Grind
Royal Troon is a brute. It's famous for the "Postage Stamp"—the tiny 8th hole that looks like a vacation but plays like a nightmare—and a back nine that usually beats players into submission with relentless headwind. Heading into the week, the narrative was about the "Big Four" of that era: Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, and Jordan Spieth.
Nobody was really betting the house on a 40-year-old Swede with a history of "almosts" or a 46-year-old Mickelson looking for one last miracle.
Mickelson set the tone early. On Thursday, he flirted with the first 62 in Major championship history. The putt on 18 caught the lip, stayed out, and he settled for a 63. It was a masterpiece. Most people figured that was the peak. Usually, when a guy starts that hot, he fades. Phil didn't fade. But Henrik Stenson wasn't going anywhere either.
The Duel Nobody Saw Coming
By the time the final round started, the gap between the lead duo and the rest of the pack was already getting weird. Stenson was at 12-under, Phil was at 11-under. The guy in third? Bill Haas at 6-under.
Think about that. Five shots.
The 2016 Open Championship at Troon essentially became a match-play event on the biggest stage in the world. What followed was a standard of golf that we might never see again. Stenson started Sunday with a three-putt bogey. Most players would have folded. Not Henrik. He answered with birdies on 2, 3, and 4.
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Phil wasn't blinking. He eagled the 4th.
The two of them were trading haymakers. It felt less like a golf tournament and more like Rocky. One would stick a mid-iron to six feet, and the other would one-up him by draining a twenty-footer. They were walking down the fairways chatting, almost like they were enjoying the absurdity of it all. It was pure, high-level competition stripped of the usual Sunday nerves.
The Numbers That Break Your Brain
Let’s look at the final leaderboard because the math is genuinely hilarious.
Henrik Stenson finished at 20-under par. He shot a 63 on Sunday. In a Major. On a links course.
Phil Mickelson finished at 17-under. He shot a 65. In any other year in the history of the Open at Troon, a 17-under score wins by a landslide. J.B. Holmes finished in third place. His score? 6-under.
Stenson beat the third-place finisher by 14 strokes.
Fourteen.
To put that in perspective, the difference between 3rd place and last place among those who made the cut was roughly the same as the gap between Stenson and 3rd. He and Phil were playing a version of golf that shouldn't exist under that kind of pressure. Stenson’s 264 total shattered the previous aggregate scoring record for a Major (265 by David Toms).
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Why Stenson Won (and Phil Didn’t Lose)
People talk about "losing" a tournament. Phil Mickelson did not lose the 2016 Open Championship. He was beaten by a guy who turned into a literal ball-striking machine. Stenson’s 3-iron—the club he famously used instead of a driver most of the time—was a heat-seeking missile all week.
The turning point was the 15th hole on Sunday. Stenson faced a massive, sloping birdie putt from off the green. If he misses, the door stays open for Phil. He drained it. Then he birdied 16. Then he nearly aced 17. By the time he birdied 18 for his tenth birdie of the day, the golfing world was in a state of collective shock.
It was the first Major win for a Swedish male. It was also the ultimate validation for a guy who had spent years as one of the best players never to win a big one.
The Legacy of Royal Troon 2016
What makes this specific Open stand out years later is the lack of "collapse." We love a good collapse—think Jean van de Velde or Greg Norman. But there is something infinitely more satisfying about two experts performing at the absolute ceiling of human capability.
The conditions weren't easy. The pressure was suffocating. Yet, they combined for a score that made a championship-grade course look like a local muni. It changed how we view "winning scores" at the Open, though few have come close to that 20-under mark since.
It also served as a reminder that age is just a number in this game. Mickelson and Stenson were both in their 40s, outclassing a field of young guns who were supposedly longer and faster. They won with precision and a "flat stick" that couldn't miss.
Practical Lessons for the Links
If you’re heading out to play a links course or just want to channel your inner Stenson, there are actual takeaways from that week at Troon.
1. The "Fairway Wood" Strategy
Stenson barely touched his driver. He relied on a 3-iron or a 3-wood to find the short grass. At Troon, the gorse and bunkers are a death sentence. In links golf, distance is secondary to angle. If you can't hit the fairway, you can't score. Period.
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2. Putting for Speed, Not Just Line
Watching the replays of that Sunday, both players were masters of "dying" the ball into the hole. On slow, windy greens, if you ram a putt past, the comeback is terrifying. They played the wind on their putts just as much as their drives.
3. Mental Resilience After a Bogey
Stenson’s three-putt on the first hole Sunday could have been the end. Most amateurs let a bad start ruin the next five holes. He treated it like a data point, adjusted, and went on a tear.
What to Watch Next
If you want to truly appreciate the 2016 Open Championship at Troon, go find the "Official Film" of the tournament or the final round highlights on YouTube. Pay attention to the sound the ball makes off Stenson’s irons. It’s a different noise than most pros make.
The next time the Open returns to Troon, every commentator will be talking about this duel. It is the benchmark. It’s the gold standard for what happens when two legends refuse to blink.
For those looking to dive deeper into the statistics of that week, check out the official Open Championship archive which breaks down the hole-by-hole data. You’ll see that Stenson’s "Strokes Gained" metrics for that Sunday are basically off the charts—a statistical anomaly that we might be waiting another fifty years to see repeated.
If you're planning a golf trip to Scotland, try to get a tee time at Royal Troon. Just don't expect to shoot 20-under. Most of us are happy to survive the Postage Stamp without taking a 10.
To improve your own game based on what worked at Troon, focus your practice on low-trajectory "stinger" shots. The ability to keep the ball under the wind is what separated Stenson and Mickelson from the rest of the field that struggled in the Ayrshire gusts. Use a launch monitor to track your "apex height" and try to get your long irons to peak 20% lower than your usual shot. This control is exactly what allowed the leaders to stay aggressive while everyone else was playing defensive golf.
Actionable Insight: The real secret to Stenson's victory was his 3-wood accuracy. If you want to lower your scores on tough courses, spend your next three range sessions hitting nothing but your 3-wood or 5-wood until you can hit 7 out of 10 "fairways" on the range. Eliminating the big miss with the driver is the fastest way to bridge the gap between a "good round" and a "career round."