This Monday, after waking up from his Masters victory, Phil Mickelson drove — in his green jacket — to a Krispy Kreme in Augusta, Ga., and ordered some doughnuts. 

It makes for a pretty cool story and would have gotten picked up by a few outlets. But what made the story a social media phenomenon was the picture. Here it is, in all its glory.

Clay Travis Masters champion Phil Mickelson showing up at an Augusta Krispy Kreme the day after he won.

That’s definitely Phil Mickelson in the rarely seen glasses, a daughter in the front seat, another daughter in the back seat. In the old days, it would have taken a long time for this photo to circulate around the world. Not today.

So I decided to trace how fast it flew around the world. Answer? Pretty quickly.

AOL Fanhouse writer Clay Travis was speaking at a high school in Nashville on Monday when the photo came into his e-mail box.

The original photo was taken by Greg Carswell, the manager of the Krispy Kreme on Washington Road in Augusta. An e-mail with the photo was sent at 11:24 a.m. ET on Monday from a person who said they were a friend of Carswell.

“This picture was taken this morning, he said he signed autographs and allowed him to take this picture with his family in the vehicle,” the e-mail said. “Pretty neat, just thought I would share it with you.”

We can assume that the picture was then sent out to a large group of people, including Jason Cyrus Ohanian, who works in emerging markets equity research at Wells Fargo. Within minutes, Ohanian sent it to Travis.

“In between a break from speaking at the high school, I put it up on Twitter,” Travis said. “It literally took 30 seconds.”

@ClayTravisBGID Phil Mickelson reportedly hits Krispy Kreme with the family the morning after Masters win. Green jacket? Check. http://twitpic.com/1f4gpo

What followed were more than 14,000 people viewing the picture, re-tweets, blogs and then stories, including the required one from the Augusta Chronicle, who “broke” what Mickelson ordered.

Under the headline “Mickelson’s order excites Krispy Kreme staff,” reporter Adam Folk reveals that Mickelson order 36 doughnuts — a dozen glazed, a dozen chocolate and a dozen mixed.

Completing the loop were the folks at Krispy Kreme, who proudly tweeted the unpaid endorsement.

“I knew that this story would get a lot of attention,” Travis said. “It just pretty much confirms what people think about Phil. You get the idea that he’s the kind of guy who would show up to a Krispy Kreme in his green jacket after winning the Masters. The fact that he actually did it – and it was documented – is what makes this work as a story on so many different levels.”

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