The Open leaderboard 2016: Phil Mickelson maintains lead in battle with Henrik Stenson

A few names like Beef Johnston, Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson have made their runs Saturday on the first page of the leaderboard, but The Open remains a two-man race in the third round. There’s Phil Mickelson, desperately holding onto a one-shot lead at 11-under, and then there’s Henrik Stenson, the hottest player in the field since Friday, staying right on his heels.

The conditions can change in a hurry, and there are big numbers lurking out there on every hole, especially on the back nine. Still, it seems like your 2016 champion golfer of the year is going to come from that final pairing. It looked like the big-hitting Swede would take the driver’s seat early in the round, opening with birdie on the first green to pull even with Phil right away.

Stenson posted three birdies in his first four holes to actually flip the margin on Mickelson and take a one-shot lead to the 5th tee.

Phil has fought back, however, letting Stenson cool off with a couple bogeys and avoiding that similar fate with some remarkable recoveries. Mickelson has just one birdie on the card, but is bogey-free despite several wayward drives. He was able to avoid the driver through much of Friday’s round in the rain, instead popping irons off most tees. But he’s hit driver on multiple occasions in this third round, and also missed half his fairways through the first 12 holes.

The most penal miss seemed to come at the 12th, where the ball settled right next to a gorse bush. Had Mickelson been a right-hander, the lie may have been unplayable. But the lefty took a full cut at it and managed to advance it up the fairway.

The shot was the kind of Mickelson attempt that we’ve become so familiar with over 25-plus years in these big events. He still needed to get up and down, and he put some of that “delayed juice” he talked about on Friday to suck a wedge within range, make the moderate-length putt and walk off with an all-world par. It was one of the best pars we’ve seen in years and kept him in solo possession of the lead.

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