Mickelson wins the Open Championship For The First Time

Phil Mickelson is never a smart bet until he wins. The lefty had a 66 shot day on Sunday and was able to win the Open Championship after he was 5 strokes behind the leader.

“I don’t care how I got it, this trophy. I got it,” Mickelson said. “And it just so happened to be with one of the best rounds of my career, which is really the way I’ve played my entire career. I’ve always tried to go out and get it. I don’t want anybody to hand it to me. I want to go out and get it. And today I did.”

Mickelson has just two top-10s in 19 previous appearances in the British Open; it was disappointing until Sunday. He was a 10/1 bet to win the tournament despite his awful stats there.

The triumph was the 42nd of Mickelson’s PGA Tour career; he’s now No. 2 in the world for the first time since 2010.

“I kind of had to compose myself, because I hit two of the best 3-woods I ever hit,” Mickelson said about the birdie he got at the 14th to get to 1 under. “That is exactly why I don’t have driver in the bag. Those two 3-woods were the best shots of the week, and walking up on that green is when I realized that his championship is very much in my control. And I was getting a little emotional.”

Tiger Woods, on the other hand, can’t make it happen in major; his inability to win is the safest bet in the world right now.

“It was frustrating,” Woods said. “I played well. I could just never get the speed [of the greens] right today. We started on the first day, and it progressively got slower. And that’s usually the opposite at most tournaments. It usually gets faster as the week goes on, but this week was different. And today I had a couple of opportunities to make a couple of putts and I left them short.”