THE golf course at Troon lies on the west coast of Scotland in South Ayrshire, just up the road from where Rabbie Burns was born, picked up his first niblick and wrote a bit of poetry.With pot bunkers like dongas and the vagaries of the local weather, playing there can lea‘e us nought but grief an‘ pain. It draws winds from the Firth of Clyde that on occasion will require a driver rather than a pitching wedge for one of the short holes.Last Thursday, Troon was at its most benign. A day later it was awful. Despite the weather, Henrik Stenson shot a 65 following his first-round 68. Phil Mickelson had a 69.The day before Mickelson had come within an agonising lipped-cup putt from 16ft on the 18th for a 62.It would have given him the lowest single-round score ever in a major.Those scores set up their duel for Saturday and Sunday that now rivals some of the most famous head-to-heads in golf. Stenson, as we now know, prevailed by three shots with a record 264 and another record: 20 under ...
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