AUGUSTA, Ga. — Six years and 362 days ago, Phil Mickelson stepped up to a ball nestled in a tuft of pine straw just wide of Augusta’s 13th fairway, and unleashed the most important shot of his life: a dart-perfect approach that propelled him on to the sweetest of major victories.

On Saturday afternoon, Jordan Spieth stood in the exact same spot, 230 yards from the pin. Mickelson himself was nearby, his own hopes of another green jacket detonated in a sloppy, careless third round. Phil would offer no 13th-hole heroics today, but Spieth … Spieth had something big in mind.

“What would Arnie do?” Spieth asked caddie Michael Greller, and the decision was: go big. (“Did [the camera] pick that up?” Spieth smiled afterward. “Good.”) Spieth settled in, drew back, and let fly a near-flawless approach, one that settled just 29 feet from the hole. A gentle putt and a birdie tap-in later, and Spieth had carded another one of those signature moments that might just loom large come Sunday evening.

Spieth and Mickelson are the two reigning titans of American golf, the aged but still dangerous gunslinger and the ruthless, relentless kid. Their pairing on Saturday — only the second time they’ve been paired together on a weekend at a tournament — outshone every other on the course, and patrons stacked 15-deep watched them tee off just after 2 p.m. ET.

For two holes, at least, it appeared Mickelson would channel some of the magic that he appears capable of generating any time there’s a major on the line. He birdied the first two holes, head held high, grin wide, reveling in the “LET’S GO PHIL” shouts echoing from the gallery.

Spieth, meanwhile, paced like he was sizing up the best way to jump a high fence. He’s a methodical player by nature, and never was that more evident than on Saturday, when he changed clubs, paced off distances, and stared at greens for what seemed like enough time to count every blade of grass.

But the preparation paid off. After beginning the day with three straight pars, Spieth birdied the fourth, kicking off a run that saw him post red numbers on three of the next four holes and five of the next ten. Spieth’s bogey on 16 was his first in 29 holes, the longest bogey-free run of any player in the tournament.

This is what Spieth does best, better than virtually anyone else on Tour: picking a target and then chopping away at it, methodically and relentlessly, like bringing down a pine tree with a hand axe. He doesn’t have the flair of Mickelson or the muscle of Dustin Johnson, but what he does have is a precision and mental toughness that have put him back in position even when he was 10 strokes back of the lead on Friday morning. (Only one player — Harry Vardon — has ever won a major being 10 or more strokes back after the first round; Vardon did it at the U.S. Open all the way back in 1898.)

Spieth’s birdie at 13 was the marquee moment, but it wasn’t the only one from Saturday that deserves another look. First off, there was the ridiculous par at 7, where Spieth somehow bounced a ball between bunkers and up onto the green. Then there was the ice-cold bullseye on 9, where Spieth dropped an approach onto a shelf the size of a pool table. Spieth saved himself from himself on 10, his comebacker to inside four feet making up for a wretched approach where he flew the green. And then there was 15, the hole that had bedeviled Spieth on Thursday with a quadruple bogey; this time around, Spieth laid up 106 yards away, and then merely dropped his approach to within seven inches of the cup.

Taken individually, the shots would be the kind of highlights you see replayed every time the Masters rolls back around. Taken together, they might just mean that Spieth is rounding into form for a charge at a second green jacket. Ten strokes off the lead at the end of the first round, he now sits just two strokes behind leaders Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, and a single stroke behind Sunday playing partner Rickie Fowler.

“It’ll be a new experience here, coming from behind at the Masters,” Spieth said after his round. “It might free me up a bit, coming from behind. At this point, it’s win or go home.”

So where does this leave Spieth at the 2017 Masters? Amid a thicket of storylines. A second green jacket would mean redemption for Spieth’s 12th-hole collapse last year. But a victory for Rose would add to a career that includes a U.S. Open championship and an Olympic gold medal. A win for Sergio Garcia would kick him out of the club no one wants to belong to, the “best player never to win a major.” A championship for Rickie Fowler would put him on an equal footing with the other finest players of his generation, including Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Johnson. And then there are players like Ryan Moore and Charley Hoffman, who, while not necessarily the household names of the others, would still enjoy the life-changing glory that comes from winning at Augusta.

If you’re a betting type, you’ve got many options. But a wise way to go would be to pick the guy who knows how tough it is to win at the Masters … and how easy it is to lose.

“I’ve been on both sides here,” Spieth said, “and I like the winning side better.”

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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• Masters green jacket up for auction, and it isn’t cheap
• Jay Hart: Will the Golf Gods finally smile upon Sergio Garcia?