• The Masters

Majestic Mickelson has Augusta dancing to his tune

Phil Mickelson was the master of Augusta on Saturday © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Out of Bounds: Donald a major failure? It's still far too soon to tell
  
• News: Mickelson magic lights up Augusta
  
• Features: Plays of the Day: Sergio & Rory share a moment
  
• News: Sunday experience gives me the edge - Mickelson
  
• Features: Surprised by Tiger's meltdown? We shouldn't be
  
• Features: What They Said: Rory affected by Sergio's struggles
  
• Profile: Phil Mickelson
• Gallery: The Masters: Day Three

ESPN is providing live commentary and updates during all four days of The Masters from Augusta National - along with comprehensive news views and opinions.

There was a point, during one of the most impressive back nines in recent Masters history, where Phil Mickelson hit a shot that possibly no other player in the field could have pulled off.

Masters 2012: Hanson leads Mickelson by one
Masters 2012: Leaderboard
Masters 2012: Third round gallery
Masters 2012: What They Said
Masters 2012: Plays of the Day

It sounds like an exaggeration; the unreliable hyperbole of the overexcited sportswriter - and perhaps that is the case. But it sure didn't feel like that at the time.

What it felt like, as the realisation dawned that he's really just done what I thought couldn't be done, was genius at work.

The challenge looked impossible. Mickelson, having slightly overhit his second shot, found himself just over the back of the green at the par-five 15th, facing a 15-yard chip of which there was only about 15 feet of lightning fast green between him and the pin. Players had been bumping delicate little pitch shots well past the flag all day, finding it almost impossible to stop it anywhere close. Par looked the best score available.

It seemed Mickelson, awkwardly placed on the side of slight slope, had even less of a margin for error than those before him. Yet, somehow (how are we still questioning his short-game wizardry at this stage? Guess that's Augusta for you) he opened the face of his 64-degree wedge and managed to flop as graceful a shot as you are ever likely to see to about five feet from the pin, where it stopped almost instantly.

The left-hander then rolled in the putt to pick up another birdie, the third of a back nine that also included a fist-pump worthy eagle at the 13th. Yet, afterwards, he acted like it was nothing.

"Fifteen, yeah, that was also nice," Mickelson said, shortly after reflecting on the 'momentum-changing' eagle at 13. "I hit five-iron and it flew 235 - I never hit five-iron that far - and went over the back of the green.

"It was a very hard shot but I got fortunate that I had a good lie and the green was softer than it has been and I was able to get it close and make birdie."

Mickelson does himself a disservice. It was a shot few would have contemplated, let alone go ahead and execute so well. It was the highlight moment of a spell of golf that was spellbinding in its brilliance.

After starting with nine pars in a row, there was little to suggest he was about to break into song. Yet at the awkward tenth, he fired his approach to six feet and holed it, ignoring the bunker just yards to the right of the pin. At 12 he went straight at the flag, draining another mid-range putt for a two. Thirteen was a master class in tee-shot (baby fade), approach (long iron to 35 feet, on line but beneath the flag) and putt (a nice curler that dropped right in the centre).

Fifteen; well, we've covered that already.

At 16, Mickelson trusted his swing enough by this point to go straight at the flag - perched precariously high on the right of the green, with bunkers both in front and behind - and nearly pulled it off; ultimately seeing it run agonisingly off the green on the high side after pulling it slightly. This was understandable (it is the Masters, after all, not the monthly medal down the local pay-as-you-play - shots even a fraction off are going to meet difficult ends), but it seemed to have left him in another impossible position.

Once again, with a severe slope and no green to work with, Mickelson found a way to get up-and-down - this time putting from the fringe to two feet, showing a finesse that has helped him unlock the secrets of Augusta down the years.

A birdie was not forthcoming at 17, but at 18 he holed out from just over 10-foot to put the stamp on a round of 66 (back nine of 30) that put him in the final group, a shot behind Swede Peter Hanson, ahead of Sunday's decisive fourth round.

"Sunday, you kind of cherish the back nine and it's exciting, but I feel like Saturday is the day you have got to play well to get yourself in position," Mickelson noted, astutely as it turns out, on Friday. "[It] will be a critical day. It will be a critical day to get myself in a spot where I don't have to make up too much ground from the leaders."

With three green jackets already in his wardrobe, Mickelson must now be a prohibitive favourite to add to that tally.

"This was a really fun day and it gives me an opportunity to make something special happen tomorrow," Mickelson, fresh from his birdie at 18, said afterwards. "There's nothing more exciting than being in the final group on Sunday at the Masters."

The likes of Rory McIlroy showed they still have much to learn around Augusta © Getty Images

Enlarge

If Mickelson ends up receiving a fourth green jacket from Charl Schwartzel - the man he bestowed the treasured garment on 12 months ago - on Sunday evening, he will join exalted company. Only Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods will have won as many Masters as 'Lefty', with Jack Nicklaus (six) the only man further out in front.

To join such company would mean a lot for Mickelson's legacy, and a lot to the man himself. As one of the few (maybe even the only?) current professional who turned up at the crack of dawn on Thursday - hours before his tee-time, the last of the day - to watch Palmer, Nicklaus and Gary Player (a three-time Augusta winner) hit the first ceremonial drives of the tournament (so not only is he a golfing savant, he's a classy one too), he appreciates the lore that surrounds the quiet corner of Augusta that his actions have so frequently filled with sound.

He would surely like little more than to book his own spot in that prestigious role, firing the proverbial starting gun for the next generation in decades to come as he relaxes at a clubhouse where he feels perfectly at home.

He has obviously mastered the course - thousands of world-class players have driven up Magnolia Lane, but few find any or all of the answers to the questions Augusta National poses like he can seemingly do. Mickelson played himself into one of the toughest conundrums the layout has to offer at 15, and found the solution with an ease only a genius can muster.

"It wasn't the safest shot, and that's not where I want to be," he later acknowledged, downgrading the self-deprecation slightly. "That pin position is by far the toughest for me to make a four on that hole, because you can't miss short; you're in the water.

"And long is no bargain, the way the green is pitched severely from back to front in the middle; that's not where I wanted to be. That spot was a very tough up and down."

And yet he did it. A master of the course, Mickelson has the chance on Sunday to translate that ability into an unquestionable spot in the record books.

He may take that opportunity, he may not - that's the beauty of the final round at the Masters, anything can happen. Like all transcendant talents, Mickelson can be wildly erratic if he so much as eats the wrong breakfast in the morning. As graceful as his birdie at 15 was, leader Hanson recorded the same four from practically the same spot - bumping a slightly errant chip off the other side of the green before holing the long return putt.

Ability is great - but sometimes luck can be just as good.

Whether Mickelson does or doesn't win, the form of another Augusta expert - 52-year-old Fred Couples (two-under after a 75 on Saturday) - suggests the 41-year-old Mickelson will have many more chances to reach the summit of Mount Green Jacket once again.

That's good news for him. But, for the sportswriter, patrons and television audience alike, it's probably even better news for those who will continue to watch him, mouths agape, as he continues to pull off shots we didn't think possible.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.