The Open: Phil Mickelson denied spot in history but still leads Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth

Despite leading the Open with an eight under par 63 Mickelson was gutted at the end of the day

Phil Mickelson recoils in horror after watching his moment pass (Getty)

Phil Mickelson thought he had made history. He thought his 18-foot birdie putt at the last hole was in. He was about to be the first player to shoot 62 in 156 years of major championship golf. And then his ball lipped out. “Oh my god,” he mouthed in horror before covering his face in his hands.

Leading the Open with an eight under par 63 yet Mickelson was gutted. “It was one of the best rounds that I've played and yet I want to shed a tear right now,” Mickelson said after his round. “That putt on 18 was an opportunity to do something historical. I knew it, and with a foot to go I thought I had done it. I saw that ball rolling right in the centre. I went to go get it, I had that surge of adrenaline that I had just shot 62, and then I had the heartbreak that I didn't and watched that ball lip out. It was, wow, that stinks,” he said.

“It's such a rare opportunity to do something historic like that. If I had just hit a weak flail-off and never had a chance and left it short, so be it. But this ball was hunting right in the centre and didn't go. It was just heartbreaking. There’s a curse because that ball should have been in. If there wasn't a curse, that ball would have been in and I would have had that 62.”

It was no consolation to the 46-year-old that he is only the 26th player to shoot 63. He also becomes just the third member of an exclusive lip-out club sharing heartbreak with Tiger Woods who’s putt for history defied gravity at the 2007 US PGA Championship and Nick Price whose ball did likewise at the 1986 Masters.

Let’s just call them the 62 and a half club. Mickelson’s 63 is also the lowest at Royal Troon beating 64s by Woods in 1997 and Greg Norman in 1989. The last 63 in a major was by Rory McIlroy in 2010 at St Andrews. Americans: over here, over paid and under par. Eight of the top 11 players on the leaderboard after the first round of the 145th Open at Royal Troon are American. Their leader and general is five-times major champion Mickelson.

The last time he won anything at all anywhere was three years ago when he won the Open at Muirfield. Mickelson has familiar company just below him in fellow Ryder Cup teammates Patrick Reed, tied second at five under, and Steve Stricker, Keegan Bradley and defending champion Zach Johnson at four under along with Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau. Keeping the European flag flying are Germany’s Martin Kaymer at five under and Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen four under.

The British are represented by Andy Sullivan at four under and Justin Rose three under. On a balmy sun-kissed breathless day when players made hay on the front nine and hung on for dear life on the back nine, Rose was the only one of the leading players to score better the other way around.

“Typical me, played the back nine in lower shots than front nine,” Rose said. “I thought all the lights were on in the house when I woke up, then I realised it's actually the sunshine. We've rented this house for two weeks and it was literally the first bit of sun we've had.” Reed, tied second three shots behind Mickelson, is the American that British golf fans love to hate. He has cultivated a feisty relationship with spectators particularly at the Ryder Cup. In 2014 at Gleneagles he earned a reputation for being the USA’s Ian Poulter.

There was one infamous scene where, after holing a birdie putt, he placed his right finger to his lips as if to say: “Shush” to the Scottish galleries.

But he’s a loveable rogue who has taken to the relaxed lifestyle of Scotland since arriving to play in the Scottish Open last week at Inverness. “You come over here and like last week when I was over, when we were driving from the golf course from the hotel there's just a lot of farmland, a lot of sceneries, you see the water to the left, the farms to the right and it's just a two-lane road going in and out,” Reed said. “So you just have that kind of relaxed feeling that you have golf and then relaxing time.

Yet at home it's golf, sit in traffic, traffic lights, a thousand cars, people honking at you, and then you get home and you're trying to go through a busy hotel, so it's still stressful off the golf course,” he said. “Here it seems like it's just golf and then just kind of relax, have some fun. It's definitely a way different pace than back home. It's nice. It's a great change of pace.”

The Fab Four were off the pace set by Mickelson. Rory McIlroy was the best of them at three under. Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth finished at level par while World No.1 Jason Day was two over par.