The phrase "a hot streak" might almost have been invented for golf.

And, right now, Phil Mickelson is living proof of it.

Mickelson won the Scottish Open with some thrilling improvisation at Castle Stuart last week, and this evening won the Open here at Muirfield after playing some mesmerising golf. "I have just shot the round of my life," he said.

'Lefty' finished his final round at 5.15pm, having shot a 66, the best of the day, to rout a host of contenders including Lee Westwood, Adam Scott and a faltering Tiger Woods.

Mickelson received one of the most lavish receptions of his career as he walked up the 18th amid the packed Muirfield stands. Adding style to substance, he duly drained a 15-foot birdie putt.

It was entirely fitting that Mickelson should win his first Open Championship on Scottish soil. This has been as excoriating a golf course as any Open has known, but the Scots still demand artistry above industry in 'gowf'. In Mickelson, they have their man.

Dan Jenkins, the veteran American golf writer, tweeted: "That 66 by Phil is one of the greatest final rounds of a major on one of the most baffling courses I've ever seen."

Westwood, the great British hope, faltered once more. It is a worrying trend for the 40 year old Englishman, whose 75 included five bogeys. Westwood has now truly contested down to the wire - but failed to win - in 10 major championships.

Woods also faded, shooting a 74 to finish five shots behind the winner.

This was Mickelson's moment - and he relished it.

"This is such an accomplishment for me - I never knew if I'd be able to develop the game and shots needed to play links golf effectively," said Mickelson. "To play arguably the best round of my career today - and to putt better than I've ever putted - feels amazing. I have shot the round of my life here.

"I just wanted to get myself on these greens and get putts at it - and I putted so good. I was just trying to make some pars - I thought even-par for the championship would have a chance to win.

"It feels amazing. I had such a difficult loss at the US Open [at Merion] but you have to be resilient, you have to accept loss and use it as a motivation.

"These past couple of weeks - these past couple of months - I've played some of the best golf of my career."

PS...

This is what I wrote here below six hours ago by way of preview:

"I have omitted mention of one man here: 'Lefty'. Phil Mickelson is five back at plus-two prior to this afternoon's final round. Surely he cannot make up the ground and beat eight men ahead of him…can he?"

RANDOM FINAL ROUND FACTS:

Best round of the day: 66 (-5) Phil Mickelson

Worst round of the day: 80 (+9): Thomas Bjorn

Biggest British hurt of the day: 75 (+4) Lee Westwood

Hardest hole: 4 (par-3, averaging 3.405)

Easiest hole: 9 (par 5, averaging 4.643)

TWO HOURS AGO...POULTER

I was about to write: "The Ian Poulter dream died…his miraculous Open comeback faltered." But at 4.45pm it is too early to say.

You just never know.

Poulter shot a 67 across Muirfield this afternoon to ascend to within two shots of the lead when he walked off the 18th green.

Ahead of him on the leaderboard were six other players, but all of them still had holes to play. There may yet be a play-off in this 142nd Open and the 72-hole championship might yet conclude with one-over-par leading…which is where Poulter has finished.

The colourful Englishman, having started the day eight shots off the lead, electrified the crowds and walked off the 12th green to roaring applause, having gone eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie from nine through 12.

Poulter found his early momentum hard to sustain, and bogeyed the par-3 16th, but now must sit and agonise as he watches Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Zach Johnson and Henrik Stenson conclude their rounds.

"I started the day eight back, but I managed an eagle and three birdies around the turn, so I've put myself in a nice position," Poulter said.

"To shoot a 67 in these circumstances today is obviously a very good round of golf. But I can look back and think of some birdie chances out there which I let slip by, and which might have been what was required to put my hands on the trophy. But we'll have to wait and see.

"There was great excitement and atmosphere out there. The fans were giving me a lot of electricity and pumping me up.

"I was eight back last night. So I wasn't going to bed thinking, 'right, what do I need to do to get to win?' But the way I've played this week, I've definitely put myself in a lot of good positions to make birdies, and I've not taken as many as I wanted to.

"Realistically, at eight back, do you really think you've got a chance of winning? Probably not. Then again, Paul Lawrie once came from 10 shots back, and there was a six-shot swing in four holes in the Open last year. So now I've just got to sit and wait and see if it is good enough."

By the time Poulter had finished speaking he was just two off the lead behind Mickelson, Scott and Westwood.

ASIAN DISMAY...

There is a bit of resentment here at the Open at the treatment of Hideki Matsuyama, the Japanese golfer who was penalised a shot during Saturday's third round for slow play.

It was a costly penalty for Matsuyama, too…at the time he was contending among the leading pack but is now six shots back - rather than five - behind leader Lee Westwood.

The resentment comes among those here at Muirfield who are following the Asian players, and who time and again feel that the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans tend to get a raw deal when playing in the west.

I'm not convinced this is truly the case. But the recent history of penalties for slow play in golf certainly seems to back up the Asian concerns.

That is now two cases in the last three majors of players being "put on the clock" and penalised a stroke…and both were from the Far East.

At the Masters in April the 14 year old Chinese prodigy, Tianlang Guan, incurred a penalty for alleged slow play. And now, at Muirfield, Matsuyama is still smarting from what happened to him towards the end of Saturday's third round.

Matsuyama's group was deemed to have fallen well behind the 3 hours, 41 minute schedule which the R&A decree should be the pace of a two-ball. When this was noticed an observer timed Matsuyama as being too slow over a putt on the 15th hole, and then too slow again over his second shot being played to the 17th green.

It was there that Matsuyama was penalised. On the spot it turned his 5 on 17 into a 6.

One reporter here from Asia said to me: "We don't think it looks good, we feel it looks like an easy target. That is twice now in recent majors that Asians have been picked out, and it just leaves a bad taste. Is it really the case that no other players have taken the same times over shots?"

To be fair to the R&A, their rules director, David Rickman, appeared clear and precise in explaining why they had opted to penalise Matsuyama. Rickman also openly regretted the decision but appeared firm in his belief that justice had been done.

Intriguingly, Rickman added: "This week we've had a number of groups get out of position [falling behind] on the course. Our rovers out there do a considerable amount of timing. There have been single bad times, but obviously Hideki Matsuyama's is the first one-stroke penalty to be applied this week. Hideki was the first player to be seen having two bad times this week."

Today in the media centre these words certainly weren't mollifying some Asian observers, who feel that their players are being picked on.

TODD HAMILTON, LOVER OF NORMA JEAN...

Does anyone remember the opening-day excitement around former Open champion Todd Hamilton?

He shot a 69 on Thursday, making him an unlikely interviewee for the press, most of whom had scarcely noticed Hamilton for years. This was because the 47 year old hadn't won a golf tournament since his Open triumph at Troon nine years ago.

Might this be the big comeback? Might Hamilton, at long last, unleash again the talent that once brought him a claret jug?

Well…no.

Hamilton then shot 81 and 70, and finally a woeful 79 today, to go way down the field at +15 for the tournament.

Just imagine the agonies of these guys, having once conquered the world, to become like this. As Tom Watson once said: "I look back and I try to remember what it was I once understood about golf."

It may that Todd Hamilton will forever be remembered for this…not for his Open triumph, but for the story he once told about a passing circus which came to his boyhood village of Oquawka in Illinois, during which time one of its star attractions, an elephant, died and was buried right there in the village.

"And I swear to God," Hamilton said, "that elephant's name was Norma Jean."

THE FINAL SHOOT-OUT...

Sunday, 12.45pm, Muirfield: we await the main contenders going out to battle this afternoon.

Lee Westwood, at three-under, leads by two shots over Hunter Mahan and Tiger Woods. Then we've got Adam Scott on level-par and, four shots behind Westwood, there is Ryan Moore, Angel Cabrera, Zach Johnson and Henrik Stenson.

I might be wrong, but I'm guessing the eventual winner tonight will come from among these eight players, and that the final winning score will be - what? - four under par?

Not much in golf beats the final round at the Open, especially, I might add, on one of the great links courses of Scotland. The crowds here are surging through the gates and the final tee-times - Scott and Woods at 2pm, Westwood and Mahan at 2.10pm - are ones to savour.

I have omitted mention of one man here: 'Lefty'. Phil Mickelson is five back at plus-two prior to this afternoon's final round. Surely he cannot make up the ground and beat eight men ahead of him? Can he?