AUGUSTA – Nobody in the world is more starved to win a major championship than Phil Mickelson.

As per Mickelson’s pattern in majors, he finds himself in contention in the final round again, this time at the 66th Masters.

Mickelson, after shooting a 4-under 68 in yesterday’s third round, stands four shots off the lead, shared by Tiger Woods and Retief Goosen.

Typical of Mickelson’s (mis)fortune, the three players above him on the leaderboard all have won at least one major title. Woods is a six-time major winner and the Masters defending champion. Goosen is the defending U.S. Open champion. And Vijay Singh, at 9-under, has two majors to his credit.

Despite the pressure of being the “best player on the world without a major title,” Mickelson believes the pressure will be off him today as he tries to fire a low number and make the leaders think.

“I need to go out and play an attacking style, try to make some noise and give them a number to shoot at,” Mickelson said. “If [the leaders] go out and shoot 5- or 6-under-par, they’re going to win the tournament. There’s really no one that can catch them.

“But, if I can make some noise early and force them to continue to make birdies to keep pace, then it makes it a little more difficult.”

The question is, does Mickelson have a low final round in him? In his eight final rounds at the Masters, Mickelson has never shot lower than 70.

“You bringing that up doesn’t help,” Mickelson joked. “I’m obviously not going to focus on that. I think there’s still a low round out there. I need to shoot a 6 or 7-under-par round. I was hoping it was going to come [yesterday].

“With the quality of the leaderboard, with Tiger being up there and Retief playing as well as he is, those guys are not going to come back. I’m going to have to catch them. I’m hoping that if I can get a good low round it will hopefully be enough.”