AUGUSTA, Ga. — Caddie Jim Mackay took the golf bag and moved it out of the path of the foot traffic in the scoring area. He picked up the pin from the 18th hole at Augusta National and placed it against the bag.

Mackay’s golfer, the three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson, had cobbled together a 14-under-par 274, which would have tied or bettered the winning number in the four Masters after his last title run here, in 2010. But on Sunday, the score left Mickelson tied for second with Justin Rose, four strokes behind the winner, Jordan Spieth.

Over dinner the previous night with Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, Mackay discovered their paths had first crossed here in 2012, two years before Spieth shared second place in his Masters debut. The story Greller told was so sweet, Mackay was happy to help Greller in any way he could.

And after acing the big test, Greller needed a hand with the extraneous stuff, like where to drop the bag so it was not in the way and when to double back to the 18th green for the green jacket presentation.

Mackay and Mickelson, who have worked together since Mickelson turned pro in 1992, have been together for 42 PGA Tour victories, including five major championships. Along with Ben Crenshaw and Carl Jackson’s, their union is considered the game’s gold standard.

Could Greller and Spieth, who have worked together since 2011, be a partnership for the ages?

“I don’t see any reason why not,” said Bubba Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, who saw how the pair interacted up-close last year when Watson and Spieth were paired in the final group Sunday.

Greller taught math and science in elementary school for 10 years, and he still considers himself a teacher, first and foremost. Only now his classroom is outdoors and he has one pupil. On the course or in the classroom, the skill set is pretty much the same, Greller said.

“Being an encourager, I think that’s huge for the young kid out here because you’re going to have ups and downs, and you’re figuring out how to deal with that,” Greller said. “So I’m always trying to encourage him. If he needs to let things go, I’m the person he’s going to bounce it off of. And just being able to adapt to situations, that’s something you have to do out here that I’m comfortable with from teaching school for so long.”

And, of course, he is still teaching math, with an emphasis on multiplication, percentages and rounding whole numbers.

“Yeah,” he said, laughing. “It’s kind of eerie how much of it translates.”

Since Greller began caddying full time for the 21-year-old Spieth, the teacher has become a student. On the weekend he walked the course in the morning, before Spieth’s afternoon tee times, and watched how the balls were rolling on the greens. Every day he met with Crenshaw’s longtime caddie, Jackson, who spent many years as a full-time caddie at Augusta National, to soak up his knowledge.

“It’s like sitting down with Michael Jordan before the NBA finals,” Greller said. “He’s arguably one of the greatest caddies, and certainly out here there’s nobody I’d rather talk to than Carl Jackson from a caddie’s point of view.”

Greller was patiently answering every question shouted at him when John Wood, the caddie for Hunter Mahan, patted him on both shoulders and steered him away from the media pack. He told him he needed to make his way to the 18th green because the green jacket ceremony had begun.