Stenson proud to secure Swede success in The Open

Omnisports

July 17, 2016 8:36 AM

Jesper Parnevik sent Henrik Stenson a message reading: "Go out and finish what I didn't manage to finish." The latter duly obliged at Royal Troon.

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Henrik Stenson revealed he received a message of support from compatriot Jesper Parnevik before becoming the first man from Sweden to win a major championship.

A spectacular final-round display saw Stenson hold off Phil Mickelson to win the 145th Open Championship at Royal Troon on Sunday - the former firing 10 birdies to shoot 63 and finish with the lowest aggregate total in major history.

Stenson had come close in a host of majors prior to his breakthrough success, stretching a run of Swedish near-misses that included two runner-up finishes for Parnevik in The Open.

"I feel very privileged to be the one to hold this trophy," said Stenson. "There's been many great players from my country tried in past years and decades and there's been a couple of really close calls, Jesper, in particular, twice.

"He sent me a message, 'Go out and finish what I didn't manage to finish', and I'm really proud to have done that.

"It's going to be massive for golf in Sweden with this win."

Stenson credited victory in last month's BMW International Open on the European Tour - his first success since November 2014 - as a key factor in his ability to prevail at Troon.

"The last 15, 18 months I had a lot of great opportunities to win. I didn't finish the job the way I wanted and on a few of them it was a couple of youngsters from America did some good stuff and denied me the wins," he said.

"So the win in Germany a couple of weeks ago was huge to get one over the finish line.

"You feel the pressure coming in and with not having won for a while, that always kind of builds up. It was great to get that win there. That definitely helped this week, and I felt that extra confidence was going to be huge for me coming into this week. I just played some great golf."

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