The Open 2016: Henrik Stenson warns Phil Mickelson to watch for a raid after Open battle lines were drawn up at rain-hit Troon
Swede says it is about time that golf had its first Scandinavian Major winner but American will not go down without a fight
HENRIK STENSON warned Phil Mickelson to watch for a Viking raid as the Open battle lines were drawn up last night.
The Swede says it is about time that golf had its first Scandinavian Major winner.
Henrik Stenson is just one shot behind leader Phil Mickelson
And he is delighted that Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen is also breathing down Mickelson’s neck at the halfway stage.
Stenson grinned: “I don’t know if you could call Scandinavia a golfing powerhouse, but Sweden and Denmark, in particular, have created a lot of or produced a lot of good players on Tour for as long as I can remember.
“So I guess it’s only natural to see a few Scandinavians up there, and Soren is obviously playing very well too. Maybe we need to combine forces against Phil!
“We’ve got Swedish House Mafia as a super-group, and we might have another powerhouse on the way. We’ll see. But it’s good to see some of the other Scandinavians playing so well.”
World No 6 Stenson clearly feels he is the Nordic standard bearer, especially after a sizzling second-round 65 propelled him to nine under par, just a shot behind the 36-hole leader.
Kjeldsen also shot up the leaderboard with a bogey-free 68 to join Mickelson’s former Ryder Cup partner Keegan Bradley on seven under, with that quartet taking full advantage of the fact their half enjoyed the best of the weather.
Stenson, 40, finished runner-up to Mickelson in the 2013 Open at Muirfield — after finishing third on two previous occasions — and has twice finished third in the USPGA Championship.
One of those near-misses came in 2014 at Valhalla — named after the home of Odin, Thor and the other Norse gods. But maybe Troon could prove to be Stenson’s golfing heaven.
He knows he may not have too many more chances to break his duck, even though Mickelson is proving age is just a number by playing scintillating golf four year shy of turning 50.
Stenson commented: “There have been a few Majors where I’ve been right up there, and Muirfield was certainly one of them.
“I remember I lipped out a birdie putt on ten in the final round, and I think that would have been tied for the lead. But then Phil had a great finish, and won the tournament, very deserving.
“But there’s been a couple of chances, and I’m sure if things would have gone my way I could have had one or two of these already.
“It hasn’t happened for me so far, but if I keep putting myself in position and knocking on the door, I hope I get a couple of good breaks at the right times.
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“And I needed to get things going again, because I haven’t really been in contention for the last six Majors, and that has been really frustrating. I’m 40 now, and I’m not going to play these tournaments forever.
“I don’t have another 50 goes at them — it might be a dozen or 15 in total.
“So I came here thinking I better start putting myself in position and giving myself chances if I want to make it happen.
“After six tournaments not being there, I felt like there’s no time to waste.
“But you have to go out and make it happen, because Phil’s the kind of player who is never going to back down.
“He’s got a number of Majors and he wants to have another couple I’m sure.
“So he’s going to keep on trying as hard as he can, and he’s a great player.
“I’ve played a lot of golf with him this year. It feels like we’ve been out there every second week.
“I enjoy his company and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Mickelson, who has won five Majors, showed there were no hangovers from the agony of missing out on the first 62 in a Grand Slam event on day one.
He stretched his incredible bogey-free run to 30 holes before finally dropping a shot at the tricky par four 12th hole.
And after originally insisting he could not explain how his birdie putt for that magical number lipped out, he said he had made sense of it — well, sort of — after watching countless re-runs of that putt on his DVD.
Mickelson explained: “On about the thousandth viewing it finally made sense. It looked like three or four inches short of the hole it hit something and kicked dead right.
“I couldn’t figure out how it missed. Obviously it hit something and sometimes that happens, unfortunately.
“Now it’s all about trying to win the tournament.
“I don’t feel the pressure like a lot of players do to try to win the Claret Jug because I’ve already won it.
“I would love to add to it but winning it at Muirfield two years ago was big.”