Phil 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.
Woods came into the tournament after not winning a major in 20 tries, the last coming back in 2008 at the US Open at Torrey Pines. That major championship came in a playoff and Woods was basically on one knee, but it was five years between that win and the current Open Championship. Coming into the tournament Woods had won four times on tour, including the Farmers Insurance Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC Cadillac Championship and he also took time off between the British Open and the US Open after injuring his elbow.
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.
