The caddie Jim Mackay took the golf bag and moved it out of the path of the foot traffic in the scoring area. He picked up the pin from the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club and placed it against the bag.
Mackay’s golfer, the three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson, had cobbled together a 14-under 274, which would have tied or bettered the winning number in the four majors after his last title run here, in 2010. But on Sunday, the score left Mickelson tied for second with Justin Rose, four strokes behind the winner, Jordan Spieth.
Over dinner the previous night with Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, Mackay discovered their paths had first crossed here in 2012, two years before Spieth shared second place in his Masters debut. The story Greller told was so sweet, Mackay was happy to help Greller in any way he could. And after acing the big test, Greller needed a hand with the extraneous stuff, like where to drop the bag so it was not in the way and when to double back to the 18th green for the green jacket presentation.
“Michael’s a wonderful, wonderful person,” Mackay said of Greller, who was teaching sixth-grade math outside Seattle in 2012 when he won the Masters online ticket lottery, which enabled him to buy two tickets to the Tuesday practice rounds.
He arrived with his brother, and they made their way to the 16th green, where Mickelson and Mackay, whose nickname is Bones, happened to be standing. From outside the ropes, Greller posed so that Mickelson and Mackay were in the background, and his brother snapped a photograph.
“I need to find that picture,” Greller said, adding: “Obviously I was a huge Phil and Bones fan. I still am.”
Mackay and Mickelson, who have worked together since Mickelson turned pro in 1992, have been together for 42 Tour victories, including five major championships. Along with Ben Crenshaw and Carl Jackson’s, their union is considered the game’s gold standard.
Could Greller and Spieth, who have worked together since 2011, be a partnership for the ages? “I don’t see any reason why not,” said Bubba Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, who saw how the pair interacted up-close last year when Watson and Spieth were paired in the final group on Sunday.