“They make a living with their hands.” –Paul Azinger, 11:32 a.m. ET, July 21, 2013

It was a seemingly innocuous comment, but it proved prophetic. Where many sports reward and demand the ability to run faster and jump higher than one’s opponents, in golf it’s all about the hands.

On Sunday at Muirfield, the man with arguably the best hands in the game won.

Phil Mickelson, whose short game has provided countless impressive moments over his near quarter-century career, played one of the greatest rounds in major championship history, shooting a five-under 66 to obliterate the field in front of him at one of the game’s great tournament venues. At 3-under par, Mickelson won by three shots over Henrik Stenson (70), four over Ian Poulter (67), Adam Scott (72) and Lee Westwood (75) and five over Hideki Matsuyama (70), Zach Johnson (72) and Tiger Woods (74).

Westwood, who led by two shots after 54 holes, turned in yet another insufficient Sunday major championship performance. Golf fans will continue to wonder whether the 40-year old Englishman will ever put together a major-winning performance. Strangely, it was Westwood’s ball-striking that let him down on Sunday. He missed every fairway on the front nine and was still able to scrape it around in 2-over par going out. But the errant shots caught up with him on the way home as his prospects dissolved.

Tiger Woods continued his recent streak of final round major championship disappointment on Sunday, finishing in a tie for sixth. All of Woods’ 14 major championship titles have come from at least a tie for the 54-hole lead; as many times as he has been within a shot or two — the latter, this time around — he has not been able to put together a great come-from-behind round à la Mickelson. He will head to Oak Hill Country Club and this year’s PGA Championship in search of major number 15.

Mickelson’s incredible round included four birdies over the treacherous final six holes at Muirfield, where he showed exactly what Azinger meant in his summation. The most impressive turn came at the tough par three 16^th, where an excellent six iron tee shot came up just short and backtracked some 40 yards down a slope. A deft pitch left Lefty a seven-foot par putt that found the center of the cup.

Primarily, though, Mickelson’s round was built on the club that has at times conspicuously let him down: his putter. He holed important putts in profusion on Muirfield’s crusty, confounding greens and capped the performance off with a slick, curling 12-footer for birdie on the 18^th hole.

Click here to see the clubs Mickelson used at Muirfield.

Assembling such a performance on greens as firm and wind-exposed as Muirfield’s takes more than just good fundamentals and hours of practice. It takes touch — preternatural touch — to go beyond the reading of the breaks and the judgment of the speed and any affective crosswinds. The links courses that comprise The Open Championship rota are so exposed to the wind and rapidly-changing weather conditions that one green may be noticeably faster or slower than others at other ends of the course. On Sunday, Mickelson simply mastered all of these factors.

Much was made of Muirfield’s penchant for coaxing established major champions to the top of her leaderboards. Since World War II, nine Open Championships have been contested among the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. And all nine times, its winner has been multiple-major champion. Phil Mickelson’s name is now etched on the Claret Jug in Muirfield years near those of Henry Cotton, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo (twice) and Ernie Els. Of those players, only Gary Player had not previously won a major before his triumph at Muirfield.

Mickelson now has three of the four legs of golf’s career Grand Slam. The vacancy on his mantle belongs to the U.S. Open, which has so excruciatingly eluded him. This year at Merion Golf Club, Mickelson buckled on Sunday under the weight of his five career runner-up finishes and the expectations of a golf world, collecting a record sixth second-place finish and yielding the title to Englishman Justin Rose.

In 2014, the U.S. Open returns to Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, where in 1999 Mickelson first finished runner-up in the event, to the late Payne Stewart. On the line that week will be the opportunity to ascend higher up the pantheon to join Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as holders of all four major championships.

Yet again, one of golf’s great venues may serve as the theater for the endless drama that endears this game — and champions like Phil Mickelson — to millions.