Behind every great golfer, there's a great caddie.
While their bosses travel in the lap of luxury, those shrewd bagmen often seek out the kind of cheap and cheerful modes of transport that would make a donkey and cart look like a Learjet.
Jim "Bones" Mackay was all set for a knees-up on Scottish soil after guiding Phil Mickelson to Open Championship glory at Muirfield on Sunday night. With 10% of Lefty's £945,000 first prize in his back pocket – that's the tried and tested assumption anyway – he could have had a decent kick at the ba' in the local howffs. Then came an offer he couldn't refuse.
"The plan was for me to have a night of celebration here in Scotland, until I got a message on my phone about an hour after I had left the course," revealed Mackay, who was snared by the Scottish press corps in the forecourt of a North Berwick petrol station. "I opened the text and it read: 'Hey man, why don't you come fly home with me?' "It was a case of filling the car as quickly as I could to fly home with Phil and the family. That just tells you everything about him and the guy he is."
Mickelson was the main man at Muirfield. His superbly assembled closing round of 66, illuminated by a sparkling inward half of 32, was a masterclass in shot-making and controlled aggression and it swept him towards the Claret Jug.
In the triumphant aftermath, the 43-year-old Californian, who had won the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart seven days earlier, hailed it as his greatest ever round. Mackay, who has been by Mickelson's side for over two decades and had a front row seat as his gaffer romped to a three-shot triumph, would not disagree.
"I was pretty emotional," said Mackay. "I have worked for the guy for 21 years and he played the greatest round of his life in the final round of the biggest tournament in the world to win the Open. I don't make that statement lightly. I've seen Phil do some amazing things through the years, but 66 on the final day of the Open? I was, how can I say, very happy."
Mackay, the son of a Scottish father, and Mickelson's relationship runs deep. "Listen, Bones is the only guy on the golf course that wants me to play well, so why am I going to sit there and berate him and treat him poorly?" Mickelson once said. "He's the only guy trying to work his tail off for me."
The alliance was forged in 1992 as Mickelson embarked on a professional career that has produced 49 victories so far.
Mackay has been there through the wins and the ones that got away. Sunday's success was the ultimate conquest, the reward for 20 years of perseverance in a links arena that many, even Mickelson himself, thought may never be conquered.
"One of my favourite things about working for Phil is that when we see something in his game that is not up to par, he goes home and fixes it," said Mackay, who has now won five majors with Mickelson and earned the moniker "Bones" when his former employer Fred Couples called him it after forgetting his name.
"As everyone knows, when he played links golf initially, it was not good enough. He had to go home and take steps to remedy that and he did. Did he ever think about giving it up? No way. Phil's not built that way. He missed the cut at Royal Lytham last year and it hurt because he had come so far. He played the Scottish Open the week before to prepare and then didn't get it done. He dearly wanted an Open. Last week at Castle Stuart, he began taking the steps to remedy the links situation and he took the ultimate step at Muirfield."
These significant stepping stones almost led to Mackay getting too many steps ahead of himself as the tension mounted on Sunday and Mickelson marched towards a maiden Open success. "Last week at Castle Stuart and all week here, Bones has said to me 'slow down, let's enjoy this'," said Mickelson. "But yesterday he started walking a little fast so I was able to reverse it on him. He was getting choked up in the locker room. This is really special for both of us, it's a great accomplishment for us as a team."
This team has stood the test of time and the future continues to look bright for a golfing double act that has flourished on the big stage.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article