"How does a college graduate with a job offer to become a financial analyst end up carrying a 50-pound golf bag and stepping off yardage for a living?"

Scott Michaux goes in-depth and reveals quite a bit about Phil Mickelson's bagman, Jim "Bones" Mackay. A must read piece.

With Mackay, it started when he was a kid watching the caddies who got to share the space inside the ropes with his idols.

"I was a (Tom) Watson guy," he said. "This was 1980, and he was a great player, and the way he carried himself. So I thought (Watson's caddie) Bruce Edwards had the coolest job in the world, and that's what got me thinking about caddying."

Edwards was one of the first men who redefined the role of the professional tour caddie, but it was another old-school caddie who impressed Mackay.

"I'd go to tournaments and watch Bill Rogers, because he was this skinny Texan and I was skinny," Mackay said. "He had this caddie named Big Money Griff (John Griffin). At one point his caddie said, 'There's that kid again.' And he spoke to me and was nice to me, and that was really cool. That was another chapter with me falling in love with caddying, even though I'd never done it a day in my life."

While he played for Columbus (Ga.) College, Mackay worked at Green Island Country Club and befriended resident tour pro Larry Mize. Mackay often shagged range balls for the 1987 Masters champion.

A week before Mackay was supposed to start his career at Synovus Bank, Mize had broken up with his caddie after the 1989 season. Mackay begged for the chance to pick up the bag.

"I was really reluctant," Mize said, "because I said, 'You've got a good job here, Jim, and I don't know if you really want to do this caddie thing. Stay here and do that. But he was adamant about coming out and he talked me into it."

The opportunity changed Mackay's life.

"He gave me the greatest break I could ever have," Mackay said. "I knew nothing about caddying and had no idea what I was getting into or what it entailed. And it certainly entailed far, far more than I thought."

Kraft Nabisco and Shell Houston Final Round Open Thread

Phil Mickelson's 63 couldn't have come at a better time and while it'll be fun to see what he does Sunday, he's vaulted himself back onto the Masters favorites list after a mediocre start to the year. But it's the LPGA's first major of the year that has the potential for a fantastic finish with World No. 1 Yani Tseng taking the lead over Stacy Lewis, with Morgan Pressel and Michelle Wie lurking just enough that things could get interesting if someone goes low.

"I'm just not going to hit 3-woods off the tee and play that course strategically the week before Augusta."

Dave Shedloski files an interesting item about Phil Mickelson and Houston next week that should be noted for you Masters pool players who look at the previous weeks play.

"Houston is not going to set up well for me," Mickelson said Saturday after a 3-under-par 69 at Bay Hill Club. "The way the course is set up, you can't hit it more than 285-290 off a lot of the tees. It's not going to be a course where I'm going to play the most strategic and expect to really score well."

The Tournament Course at Redstone is a big ballpark, 7,457 yards, par 72. It would seem a good venue for Mickelson's high-ball power game - if the wind doesn't blow. But many fairways aren't as open as he'd like at the 300-yard mark. Mickelson finished T-35 there a year ago.

"The problem for me there is there is so much water that pinches off the tee, and I'm just not going to hit 3-woods off the tee and play that course strategically the week before Augusta," Mickelson said. "And then when it gets windy and I'm trying to hit high balls for Augusta and it requires a low knock-down shot, it's not going to work.

Having not seen the course, I'm not sure this is more of a statement about the set-up or the design. Knowing Phil's love of Rees Jones' oeuvre, I'm guessing the latter.

Mickelson...says he is now past the point of making mechanical changes and is focused on shaping shots and playing by feel."

In his report from Torrey Pines, SI's Alan Shipnuck notes the contrast between hyper-technical Tiger versus Bubba Watson's more natural approach. And apparently, Phil's.

One of the game's most natural players has been obsessing about his swing with instructor Butch Harmon since the spring of 2007. Mickelson, 40, says he is now past the point of making mechanical changes and is focused on shaping shots and playing by feel. The ease and clarity with which he competed at Torrey was in stark contrast to the plight of Woods, who began the third swing overhaul of his career last summer.

First, Dave Pelz gets put on waivers and now maybe Butch?