Taking centre stage in Henrik Stenson’s trophy cabinet is a handwritten letter from Jack Nicklaus generously informing the Swede that his 2016 Open win was better than the Duel in the Sun. In a less salubrious position is a note from the DP World Tour with details of his fines for joining LIV that he believes are double what Jon Rahm was to receive. As Stenson puts it, “there is being valued and there is being overvalued”.
Of course, as the 48-year-old returns to the Ayrshire where he and Phil Mickelson staged their epic confrontation it is Nicklaus’s anointing that is uppermost in his mind, as is the fact he so almost missed the cherished piece of post. “After The Open we went straight to an Olympic training camp and from there to Rio [where he won the silver medal],” he tells Telegraph Sport. “So I had this big pile of mail waiting when I got back.
Anyway, I was slowly going through it and there, in the middle of all the well-wishes and bills, was this letter from Jack. “It said, ‘Tom [Watson] and I had a great battle at Turnberry [in 1977] and played well, but yours was better and you both played better’. That meant a lot.
It’s there in the cabinet with the gold medal on top. It’s cool and a reminder of how exceptional that Sunday was. People always say to Phil, ‘could you have ever imagined shooting 65 and still losing?’.
But I could never have foreseen when I had that one-shot lead going into the final round, that I’d come up with a 63 and s.
