Not One for Wilting

With 1981 champion David Graham, the last man to win at Merion, watching on from the adjacent terrace – he hit all 18 greens and all but one fairway during that final round 32 years ago, a certain reminder of how best to approach this most magnificent of championship tracks – Mickelson promptly emulated Graham’s start by missing the first fairway.

Unlike Graham however, Mickelson continued to miss them and combined with a cold putter and the difficult setup, brought the field back into play very early in the round. However, two double bogeys either side of a birdie in the opening five holes actually did little to harm his chances as the rest of the contenders were also struggling.

Steve Stricker, with his own aspirations of a first major and becoming the oldest Open champion at the age of 46, uncharacteristically drove out of bounds on the second hole then inexplicably followed that by shanking an iron out of bounds on his way to a triple bogey.

Likewise, former world number one Luke Donald, playing with Rose, was clearly rattled after striking a young female volunteer with a wayward tee shot on the third. Although she was not seriously injured, the normally unflappable Englishman’s game quickly unravelled with a string of poor holes.

Charl Schwartzel started the round a stroke behind Mickelson and opened with a birdie to tie the lead. The moment and Merion got to the polished South African thereafter, posting an eight-over stretch in eight holes on his way to a final round 78.

It soon became clear through the middle of the round that the likely winner would come from Mickelson, Rose, Hunter Mahan and 25-year old Australian Jason Day, himself a runner-up in 2011 to Rory McIlroy and a near winner of this year’s Masters.

Day started the round three strokes behind Mickelson but caught him with a one-under front nine and a birdie at the short par-four 10th to gain a share of the lead. Rose also played the front nine in one-under but had the wind taken from his sails after three-putting the 11th after a bold approach had covered the flag.

A hole behind, Mickelson had made the turn in three-over and his prospects were not improved after laying up in the rough at the 10th. What followed however was vintage Phil, holing his wedge from 76 yards, electrifying Merion and the championship in the process. Mickelson’s leap in the air after the ball disappeared was reminiscent of his reaction to holing his final putt at the 2004 Masters for his first Green Jacket.

On the 11th green, Rose heard the roars and immediately knew what had transpired. "I knew it had to be an eagle because nobody (spectators) can get very close to the green on 10. A birdie there ... would be polite applause. So I knew to have that kind of reaction it wasn't a birdie, it was an eagle.”