AUGUSTA, Ga. – Phil Mickelson birdied five of his last seven holes for a 67, and sits just a shot off the co-lead of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka at the 83rd Masters Tournament.

Is it a surprise?

Well, yes and no.

“I was just hoping to shoot in the 60s,” Mickelson said. “I thought ‑‑ yeah, I thought there were some 66s out there. Look, the greens are softer than they've ever been, and they're not as fast as they normally are. So today was a day to take advantage of it. I'm sure they'll get firmer and faster as the week goes on, but you could get after the pins and you could putt aggressively.”

Augusta National has always rewarded guile. Just witness 61-year-old Bernhard Langer’s opening-round 71 on Thursday, or 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus slipping on the green jacket at the end of that unforgettable day in 1986. Some people just know how to play it.

Mickelson is one of those people. There’s a lot of golf left to be played, but he would tie Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods with a fourth victory here, second behind only Nicklaus (6). He was mostly in control as he hit eight of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens, and took 26 putts, but he could’ve fallen apart at the 10th and 11th holes. That’s where he drove into the trees and hit his approach shot into the front-left greenside pond, respectively.

Undaunted, he saved “great bogeys that should have and could have been doubles,” he said.

“Those were almost momentum maintainers, if you will, that kept me in it,” he added. “And then when I got to the holes that I could birdie I took advantage of it with some good shots.”

Mickelson played in his first Masters in 1991, when George H.W. Bush was in office and gas was $1.14 a gallon. He has played in every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup since 1994 (think about that for a second) and will turn 49 in June. He would be the oldest major winner in history should he find a way to win this, surpassing Julius Boros (1968 PGA Championship) by about six months. But does his age really matter? Mostly, the answer is no.

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“Trying to take into consideration just how good he is – he’s had 22 top-3s in major championships,” said NBC Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee. “That is more than Faldo and Trevino combined. That is more than Gary Player. That’s more than Tom Watson. That’s more than Arnold Palmer. That’s more than Greg Norman. And it is only one fewer than Tiger Woods. That’s how consistent he’s been, how great he’s been, for a long, long time.”

Added his colleague David Duval, “It was a Phil round. Kind of all over the place. A lot of magic, a lot of escapes. But he feels like he just plays better here. There’s an attitude and comfort when he comes here. And that’s why it’s not really surprising to see him play well.”

Occasionally, Mickelson looks old, like when he had nothing left in the tank and went 0-2-0 at the Ryder Cup in France last fall. More often, though, the golf ball has no clue how old he is. He could have been 28 when he won the 2018 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, and went 3-0-1 at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National, where he was the heartbeat of the American team. He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his 44th PGA TOUR win, this year.

Mickelson enjoyed one of his signature adventures at the par-4 17th hole, where his drive missed way left and he hooked his approach around the trees to just in front of the green. He got up and down for par. He ranked 25th in Driving Distance (305.1 yards) on the day, his final tee shot soaring between the trees on 18 and finding the short grass to leave himself only a wedge for his approach shot. He hit that to seven feet below the hole for his final birdie of the day.

“I wanted to finish the round off,” he said. “… I finished it off.”