AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Rick Smith was standing where he always seemed to be standing when he followed Phil Mickelson around the Augusta National Golf Club -- behind the green, craning over the gallery, keeping an eye on his pupil and hoping the swing mechanics they had been working on were being executed properly.

Or, at the very least, holding up to the pressure.

It wasn't unlike any other Masters for Smith, an Upper St. Clair native. He was wearing a dark half-sleeve mock, khaki pants and sunglasses, looking every bit the part of a successful swing instructor for PGA Tour players. His star pupil, of course, was Mickelson.

Though not anymore.

"It's a different feeling after 13 years," Smith said.

Smith no longer has a vested interest in Mickelson. They parted ways last spring when Mickelson, the world's No. 2 player, decided he needed to make some changes and enlisted Butch Harmon, who used to work with Tiger Woods, as his swing coach

Never mind that he had won three major championships -- two Masters and a PGA -- under Smith. Or that he would have won a fourth if not for his egregious mental gaffe on the 72nd hole of the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, a collapse, some think, that haunts him to this day.

Even in the months before ending his relationship with Smith, Mickelson seemed to be at, or near, the top of his game, winning at Pebble Beach by five shots and losing in a playoff a week later in the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club.

And then he moved on. Gave Smith the equivalent of a Dear John letter and dropped his golf bag at Harmon's door.

"When you're as talented as Phil, there are 1,000 ways to get it done," Smith said.

The final round of the 72nd Masters will be played today, and, well, here we are again, staring into the same tunnel of despair. Swing coaches come and go, but so much remains the same. Mickelson, who began the day in prime position to win his third green jacket in the past five years, is right back where he always seems to be -- looking up at Woods, wondering what in the beejabbers happened.

He shot 3-over 75 on an overcast day at Augusta National, leaving him at 2-under 214 and dropping him nine shots from the 54-hole lead held by Trevor Immelman.

"It was a disappointing day," Mickelson said. "I didn't play well. It was a day when low scores were out there. I thought there were low scores and I didn't shoot one of them."

Mickelson has never had to come from behind to win any of his three major championships. He has either held or shared the third-round lead in each of his previous victories -- the 2004 Masters, 2005 PGA and 2006 Masters -- a feat that appears to be in little jeopardy today.

In less than 24 hours, he went from having a chance to steal another green jacket from Woods to needing a touchdown and field goal to catch Immelman.

It was all very perplexing to Lefty.

"I felt really good, too," Mickelson said afterward, standing behind the 18th green. "I got off to a good start, made a nice save at No. 1, made a good 15-footer on 3 to save par, the putter started feeling good. I hit a good 4-iron on 4.

"I don't know where it really came from because I felt like I was really hitting the ball well and I don't know what happened. Gosh, it didn't feel bad."

It just looked that way.

Mickelson began leaking strokes after an unfortunate break at No. 8, a 570-yard par 5, when his third shot from in front of the green hit the pin before it could spin to a stop and ricocheted nearly 25 feet away. Unnerved by the result, Mickelson three-putted for bogey, and, well, there went the neighborhood.

He bogeyed Nos. 10 and 12, rallied briefly with birdies at Nos. 13 and 14, then committed the cardinal sin at the par-3 16th, hitting his 8-iron tee shot in the back greenside bunker. From there, Mickelson would need a miracle -- or Velcro greens -- to save par.

"You can't miss it to the right there," Mickelson said. "I know you have to hit it left there. I put it in a spot where the best I could do was four. I played for that and I three-putted."

We have been down this road before.

Two years ago, if he doesn't have the final-hole meltdown at Winged Foot, Mickelson could have changed the golf landscape. He had come to the U.S. Open as winner of the two previous majors -- the 2005 PGA and the 2006 Masters -- and had a chance to make it three in a row. Had he done that -- and he was within one poor decision of doing so -- Mickelson would have stolen an immeasurable amount of the attention from Woods, maybe leveled the playing field that exists between Woods and everyone else even more.

But, when he elected to carve a 3-iron through a small opening in the trees, rather than play safely back to the fairway at Winged Foot, Mickelson missed a large opportunity to maybe change the scope of the game. One month later, Woods won the British Open, and all was back as it had been.

"I thought I would have a good round today," Mickelson said. "I don't know what to say."

Neither do we.