Five reasons why The Open is set up for a perfect Sunday at Royal Troon

It’s Sunday at The Open. We’ve got a two-man duel in the final pairing, with Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson way out in front at Royal Troon. We’re set up for a great major championship Sunday, and here are some of the reasons why.

A major championship Sunday is always made better by the presence of Phil Mickelson in contention. He does not win or lose tournaments in boring ways. Phil has had his moments since that 2013 Open win at Muirfield — a Sunday that he called the greatest round of his career — like that final round chase of the setting sun at the PGA in 2014, one of the more thrilling major finishes ever.

Mickelson, however, has not really been around like this since that Sunday at Valhalla. Sure, there was the T2 at the Masters but Jordan Spieth had ended the drama around that event by Friday afternoon in Augusta. Now after two missed cuts at majors this season, we’ve got Phil in the final group on Sunday at The Open, an event he’s come to love and embrace.

His lead is gone and he may not be able to close it out to end a three-year winless streak, but we know it will at least be made more interesting and fun. Even when it goes sideways, and it likely will at some point, it’s always more entertaining with Philip.

The American audience will largely pull for Mickelson, but Stenson is a wonderful option for Champion Golfer of the Year as well. Sweden has never had a men’s major champion. Annika Sorenstam, of course, and others have won 10 women’s major championships. Henrik would be an appropriate candidate to deliver the country its first men’s major champion. He’s had the talent to do so for many years, settling atop the world rankings and winning every kind of event all across the globe except for that major.

And then there was that stretch when he completely lost his game and wandered in the wilderness, tumbling from the top of the rankings and playing back home in local club events while his peers played majors. It was a discouraging and troubling couple of years, but he did find it again and in a big way, rocketing back up the rankings and earning enormous amounts of money with FedExCup Playoff and Race to Dubai wins in the same year.

The Swede may not be as familiar as Phil for the American fans, but he’s an immense talent and a player deserving of a major after all these years. Oh, and he’s also extremely candid, insightful and one of the funniest players in the game.

The sunshine of Thursday seems so long ago. Sunday will be more of the “proper Scottish golf” of the past two days, with wind whipping under gunmetal skies. Scotsman Russell Knox joked before his round that someone said “Scotland’s summer came on a Wednesday this year.”

Golf Channel’s Terry Gannon noted that the temperature says it’s 56 degrees, but it feels more like the 40s with the wind blowing off the Firth of Clyde. The players are in knit caps, wearing mittens in between shots, and look mostly miserable.

But this is what The Open is all about! We get relatively sunny and calm days all year on the PGA Tour. This is supposed to be a different test and different style of golf. The pins are tucked, many of them on the side of the green where the wind is coming from, making it damn near impossible to get it close. David Duval said he didn’t see a single birdie opportunity on the course for the early tee times, who are catching gusts around 30 mph with some sideways rain occasionally mixed in for the extra nuisance.

It would have been disappointing if the course was defenseless with no wind and sunny, warm temperatures. Having the weather come in again for a third straight day feels right — at least for those of us watching comfortably at home.

Englishman Andrew Johnston is the hero we all deserve. He’s simply known as “Beef” and his profile skyrocketed this year when he won the Spanish Open and then promptly told everyone he was going home to “get hammered.” That’s just a piece of the full character.

Just a couple weeks ago, he was teeing up hamburgers and trying to blast them down the driving range.

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

He charmed the fans of Pittsburgh at the U.S. Open, who got behind him in big numbers. He’s doing the same this week at The Open, as the shouts of “Beeeeeffffff” rain down from the grandstands every time he approaches a hole. Beef’s “greatest hits” is already overflowing with material after just one summer in the spotlight, and this week has been yet another enjoyable introduction for a wider audience.

Golf needs more of these personalities who don’t take themselves so seriously and look to be having fun at every single damn moment. Oh! And he’s also pretty good -- he’s inside the top 5 and will play in the second-to-last pairing on Sunday of the Open Championship. We want more Beef.

Simply put, it’s the best finishing scene in golf. Regardless of the star appeal of the player in front, or the margin, it’s the most gripping walk of the season. The R&A sets up a tunnel of grandstands that don’t just surround the green, but most of the fairway as you make your approach up to the final hole. The consistently set it up every year, and there’s nothing like it.

So settle in and enjoy your Sunday at The Open.