What about that then? This was the biggest two horse race since War Admiral took on Seabiscuit. And what a captivating, exhilarating, monumental contest it was between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson.

Two thoroughbreds went head-to-head at Royal Troon yesterday and for a spell it seemed destined for a photo finish. The one consolation for the Claret Jug engraver was that he could get to work early on by at least etching the words ‘SON’ onto that cherished clump of silverware and chiselling his way back from there.

The rest were so far behind this leading duo they may as well have been playing in the 144th Open Championship let alone the 145th as they were left as mere footnotes in affairs. Like Watson and Nicklaus down the coast at Turnberry in 1977, they’ll be talking about this duel between Stenson and Mickelson in 2016 for years to come.

This day had started with the lone figure of Colin Montgomerie marching down the 18th fairway as the first man to finish. Those famous, drooping shoulders looked a little bit forlorn. No wonder. He’d been propping up the leaderboard after three rounds and those same shoulders probably felt like they’d been carrying the kind of hefty burden that used to be the reserve of Atlas.

The day finished with a huge burden lifted from Stenson’s shoulders as he became the first Scandinavian male golfer to win a major. “Sweden has waited long enough,” was the rallying cry from Stenson’s compatriot, Jesper Parnevik, who had endured Open anguish himself in Ayrshire at Troon in 1997 and Turnberry in 1994. Stenson finally ended that wait with a quite astonishing display. A magical course-record equalling eight-under 63 – the same score as Mickelson had opened the championship with – will go down as one of the best rounds in golfing history. A record crushing 20-under 264, which was a whopping 14 shots clear of the third placed JB Holmes, gave this popular 40-year-old his maiden major in his 42nd major appearance.

A marauding Mickelson had surged to victory over Stenson on the back nine at Muirfield in 2013. Yesterday, it was Stenson who accelerated over the line. Mickelson closed with a bogey-free 65 and still finished three shots behind on 17-under. “It’s the best I’ve played and not won,” he said. His total would have won every Open in history but for four. It was Stenson who was to the fore here.

The leading duo had already put a considerable amount of daylight between themselves and the rest during Saturday’s third round even if there wasn’t much daylight to cling to in the dour conditions of a fairly wretched offering from above.

All week, Mickelson had been going on about those fickle golfing gods – he was in a fury with them after his putt for a major record 62 on Thursday burned the hole – but even they delivered a decent final day for this shoot-out as it developed into a Duel in the occasional outbreaks of Sun. Royal Troon’s shimmering majesty was showcased and it got the majestic golf it deserved.

It didn’t start that way for Stenson, of course. A nervy three-putt bogey on the first immediately led to his one stroke overnight lead evaporating as Mickelson dinked one to gimme distance and made a birdie to move ahead. The American almost chipped in on the second too. The blue touch paper was well and truly ablaze and it sparked a quite rousing run of golf over a front nine which produced so many birdies it would have left an ornithologist in an excited, flustered lather. There was an eagle to boot. Mickelson’s raking 4-iron approach to the par-5 fourth spawned a three but he needed to produce such magic to keep pace with Stenson who had recovered from that early stumble with a trio of birdies at the second, third and fourth. If that was dazzling however, you needed sun specs to shade your eyes from the sparkling scenes on a riveting back nine.

Mickelson trundled in a 25-footer on the 12th for his par to stay level at the top but Stenson would up the ante in quite devastating style. He rolled in a good one for birdie on 14 to move ahead before a defining moment arrived at the 15th when Stenson putted from the fringe of the green for another birdie to double his lead. On the 16th, Stenson pulled his approach but conjured a delightful recovery from a perilous lie. Mickelson’s putt for eagle kissed the lip – those golfing gods were not being kind to him – and Stenson also made his birdie to stave off his rival’s menacing advances. The fist pump confirmed the importance of the moment. “That putt was huge,” he noted. They thought it was all over. Well, not quite. Stenson, with a chance to move three ahead, missed a short birdie putt on 17 after Mickelson had bravely made par from 15-feet.

There was a heart in the mouth moment on 18 as Stenson’s tee-shot reared up inches short of the fairway bunker which had scuppered Greg Norman’s Open hopes in 1989 but, as the Swede said, this was his time. He plonked an approach to the centre of the green and made the birdie to finish with a flourish.

It was a fitting finale to one of golf’s greatest days.