Phil Mickelson secures victory at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open – Golf news
Phil Mickelson birdied the first extra hole in the sudden-death playoffs of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open to record a victory over Branden Grace, on Sunday, July 14, 2013.
The event was being staged at the Castle Stuart Golf Links, featuring some of the best players from different parts of the world.
Entering the final round, the Lefty was sharing the second spot on the leaderboard and then double bogeyed the first hole to mark a poor start to his round-four campaign.
He then recorded a birdie on the second hole, followed by losing another shot on the very next hole that he played. That was the time when he picked up pace and added shots to his scorecard on each of the next three holes.
The back nine of the course witnessed him charging to the top of the leaderboard, courtesy of birdies on the 11th, 12th and the 14th hole. Entering the final hole, he held a one-stroke lead over Grace, who was sitting in the clubhouse after carding a 17-under
par tournament score.
It means that Mickelson just needed a par putt to finish off the tournament with comfort. However, a three-putt bogey was not enough to celebrate success right away and he had to go through the sudden-death playoffs to claim the eighth European Tour victory
of his career.
“This is really cool,” said Mickelson. “I have been coming here for some time and had some opportunities and I almost let it slip away today. To come out on top was terrific. I was so mad at myself for mentally losing my focus that I came out on that 18th
pretty focused to make a four.”
“I started coming here around 2000 or so and spent a lot of years here enjoying my time in Scotland and enjoying this competition, I’ve come close a couple of times, and to finally win, that feels great,” he added.
He now plans to maintain consistency in his game, in a bid to keep the momentum going into the upcoming Open Championship, the third major golf championship of the season.
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