Phil Mickelson tells remarkable tale of Augusta following hurricane damage

If you had any doubt that Augusta National would not recover from the September’s storm, allow Phil Mickelson to put your mind at ease.

Phil Mickelson is yet to see Augusta National ahead since it was permanently changed by Hurricane Helene, but he has witnessed first-hand the extraordinary lengths the greens staff go to in order to keep everything looking pristine.

Like everyone involved in golf, the three-time Green Jacket winner wondered how Augusta might recover from the damage caused by Helene, a category 1 storm that ripped through the south-eastern United States on September 27 of last year.

Footage emerged in the coming days to show that hundreds of trees across the property had been downed by Helene, which brought with it winds of up to 100mph.

In February, Augusta chairman Fred Ridley described the golf course as “in spectacular condition” as the race to be ready for the Masters went into overdrive.

“We have not quite as many trees as we did a year ago,” Ridley added. “We had minor damage to the course, the playing surfaces themselves, but we were able to get that back in shape. I don’t think you’re going to see any difference in the condition for the Masters this year.”

And although Mickelson is yet to carry out any reconnaissance ahead of his 32nd trip down Magnolia Lane, he did have a fascinating tale to tell about a previous visit.

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Speaking ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Miami event, Mickelson said: “I’ll give you a little Augusta story, if I may, while we’ve got a minute.”

“I was playing a practice round there one year. It was two weeks prior to the tournament. Probably nobody even knows that this happened. Two weeks prior to the tournament, I’m playing the 11th hole, I’m back lining up my tee shot, and I see this tree on the left fall over right in the middle of the fairway – crash down right by the group in front of us. They were probably 100 yards away. This massive Georgia pine comes down, rips up the fairway and so forth.

“By the time I had walked from my tee shot into the fairway, I could hear on the walkie-talkies, ‘Get off of 2, get to 11! Get off of 4, get to 11!’ And these – hundred workers, I don’t know how many – there were a number of workers piling in, racing to this tree, firing up the chainsaws and started cutting this thing down.”

“By the time I walk off of 11 green, all the limbs of the tree have been cut off and put on a truck, on the back of these carts. By the time I got to 15, I looked down, they were cutting up the trunk, and the entire tree was being brought away.

“By the time I got done and get back to 18 tee and I looked down, they’re re-sodding the fairway. Like nobody knew, you couldn’t tell two days later this had happened. I just thought, if that was my home course that tree would still be there like three weeks later, and they had this thing removed.

“It was one of the most impressive things I had seen, their ability to handle stuff like that.

“I’m sure the course is going to be in great shape.”

Mickelson will be one of 12 LIV Golf players teeing up in the 89th Masters.