Amateur Golf Star’s Secret Connection to Phil Mickelson & His Green Jacket Wins Come to Light

For most golfers, just stepping onto the fairways at Augusta National is unforgettable. For Nathan Smith, the four-time US Mid-Amateur champion and current Walker Cup captain, Augusta holds an even more surreal memory. No, it is not the azaleas or the pressure of Magnolia Lane that he remembers. It was finding himself twice in Phil Mickelson‘s practice-round orbit that turned into a storybook coincidence.

Smith, speaking on The Uncomfortable Chat podcast about his career journey, recalls the magic moment that unfurled more than a decade ago. Back in 2004, Smith was still soaking in his first Masters as an amateur when he found himself sharing lunch with Mickelson after a rain delay. A few minutes later, Mickelson’s caddie (It must’ve been Jim “Bones” Mackay) asked if Smith wanted to join them for a round. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, yeah,’ so we went out and played on that Tuesday. We had a lot of fun. Obviously, he took me for a lot of money,” Smith shares, joking about Lefty’s infamous friendly wagers on the course. They played together in the Par-3 Contest, and nine days later, Mickelson won his 2004 Masters Tournament and his first major championship.

And, it wasn’t any victory, but one of the most unforgettable Masters finishes in history! Phil Mickelson stormed through the back nine on Sunday, birdieing five of his last seven holes to outduel Ernie Els. The crescendo came at the 18th green, where he buried an 18-footer for birdie, leapt into the air, and finally shed the tag of “best player without a major.” 

Fast forward six years. Nathan Smith was back at Augusta in 2010, and so was Mickelson. “He’s down there. I’m down. He goes, ‘Hey, this is good luck. Let’s do this again.’ So we played again. I think he won that year. Yeah, I think it hit him.” Mickelson was earlier advised to invite Smith to be his playing partner again in the Par-3 Contest, which he did.

 Indeed, the pre-match practice again turned into a lucky ritual for Mickelson, who won his third Masters that year, his fourth major championship overall.  And yes, it was every bit as dramatic as his first green jacket. His eagle-eagle-birdie run on holes 13 through 15 during the third round became instant Masters lore, capped by a gusty 6-iron through the pines on 13. This win held emotional significance for Lefty as well, as his wife Amy was battling breast cancer during the previous year.

“It has been an emotional year, and I’m very proud of my wife for the fight and struggle she has been through. This is terrific, it is one of the best things. We’ve been through a lot, and to be on the other end, to feel the jubilation, is phenomenal,” Mickelson said back then.

All these moments, for Nathan Smith, make them something more than bragging rights of being Phil Mickelson’s “good luck charm.” They become deeply personal. Watching one of the game’s greats up close — seeing the way Mickelson could shape shots, attack pins, and carry himself — was, in Smith’s words, “unbelievable.”

“Well, I was lucky enough to play a practice round with Phil Mickelson nine days before the tournament. Birdies on par 5s with Mickelson don’t get it done. We felt a little better after watching him play the following week,” Smith had said back in 2010.

At the same time, they also shed light on another side of Lefty, who is often known for his upfront and outspoken nature. Mickelson has long held to superstitious beliefs, which could probably be the reason why he would have asked Nathan Smith to play with him again. For what it is worth, his belief did seem to pay off.

Lefty and his other quirky superstition

Phil Mickelson’s quirks on the course have always been part of his legend, and superstition is no exception. His former caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, once shared a golf ball story. “When I went to work for Phil Mickelson back in the early ‘90s, he told me, ‘Don’t ever give me a golf ball with the number two on it.’ Some years later [1994], he was in a playoff against Fred Couples at the Tournament of Champions, and he completed 72 holes, and of course, all we had left in the locker were twos,” Mackay once recalled. What began as a number Mickelson dreaded turned into a talisman he leaned on in pressure moments for the next decade.

That wasn’t the only superstition in Lefty’s arsenal. Over the years, Mickelson has admitted to small routines he couldn’t shake. They’re everything from sticking to certain ball markers to keeping lucky coins in his pocket during majors. Even his practice habits at Augusta, like playing early rounds with specific partners or carrying handwritten notes from his children, developed a near-ritualistic quality once he started connecting them with good outcomes.

And Mickelson isn’t the only one.  Tiger Woods has always worn red on Sundays during a tournament, while Sergio Garcia always plays with balls marked with the number 15. These are small ways through which these players, including Mickelson, have often sought comfort and rhythm under relentless pressure.