Royal Troon will have its surly moments before the 145th British Open ends on Sunday, but yesterday wasn’t one of them. At least not until the last stroke of Phil Mickelson’s magnificent round of 63.

Standing over an 18-foot putt for history, Mickelson stroked the ball firmly and it headed for dead center of the hole on the 18th green. Then, without explanation or reason, the ball suddenly veered ever so slightly right, circling the lip of the cup and spinning out.

As they say in Great Britain, Mickelson was gutted.

“I’ve seen all these highlights and I feel like crying,” Mickelson said after his 8-under gave him a 3-shot, first-round lead but 1 stroke short of history. “That was a chance to do something historical right there, and to miss it that way . . . Well, it was obvious right there.

“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. I didn’t believe in the golf gods. I do now.”

If there is a magically mysterious number in major championship golf, it is 62. Many have tried to reach it and 28 have come within a whisker, but no one has been able to card it. Mickelson came about as close as someone ever could and didn’t get it either, but the aging lefty’s 63 gave him, and everyone rooting for him back home or in the wilds of Scotland, a reason to hope he just might have one last major championship in him.

Only 13 golfers in the game’s long history have won more majors than Mickelson’s five, but he hasn’t won one since his improbable victory at The Open three years ago. And he was far from a favorite to go to Troon and do what he did after failing to make the cut at either the Masters or the U.S. Open this year.

Yet Mickelson remains a favorite of a different sort. Not because he’s expected to win these any more, but rather for all the times he didn’t despite coming as close as that potentially historic putt was yesterday.

In addition to his five majors, Mickelson finished second 10 times and third seven more. His frustration at the U.S. Open has been particularly galling after finishing second a record six times and twice blowing great opportunities to win the final leg of the career Grand Slam. Despite having won 42 PGA events, he remains somehow in the hearts of many golf fans the loveable loser, the guy who had the misfortune to come along just before a Tiger began to prowl through the world of golf for a decade, the same decade that otherwise would have been his.

Although all those near-misses could be depressing, the fact is they, like everything else about Mickelson, pale in comparison to Jack Nicklaus. No one ever won like Nicklaus and no one ever lost like him either.

The game’s greatest golfer not only holds the record with 18 major championships, he backed them up with 19 seconds and nine thirds. The difference is when the number in the win column is 18 the others are easier to live with.

When the day started at Troon, there was little reason to think Mickelson might blaze a path toward becoming the second oldest golfer in history behind Old Tom Morris in 1867 to win a major, even though the conditions were unusually favorable. Not only was there no rain, howling winds or balls (and the occasional golfer) being blown sideways, the sun was out, the sky was blue and the course was inviting.

It was so inviting that when Mickelson was finished he remarked, “I felt like it was kind of easy. It was a beautiful day, and I took advantage of it. I didn’t try to do too much.”

By not trying too hard he made it look easy, opening up a 3-shot lead over Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer, with eight of the top 12 names on the leaderboard belonging to Americans. But things are fixing to change today with blustery weather and rain scheduled to arrive early and stay the weekend. That will make Royal Troon less fun from here on out, and the back nine potentially treacherous depending on those winds.

Mickelson understands what’s coming but it was not a time for worrying about what’s next. It was a time to revel in the moment, even if the moment didn’t quite arrive.

“It was one of the best rounds that I’ve played. I mean, nothing will match that final round at Muirfield (in 2013), but it was one of the best rounds I’ve ever played and I was able to take advantage of these conditions, and yet I want to shed a tear right now,” he said. “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 center. 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 stings. This one’s going to stay with me for a while because of the historical element of the major championships. There’s a lot of guys that have shot 63, but nobody has shot that 62. That would have been really something special.’’

If Mickelson wants to do something really special and win the Open Championship at 46, that sting better not stay with him today on the first tee box facing a far less cooperative Royal Troon, with a Claret Jug still waiting for someone inside the clubhouse.