Phil Mickelson shares incredible Masters story 'nobody knows about'
Phil Mickelson has won The Masters three times and has countless stories about his time at Augusta National, but there is one in particular that has stuck with him
Golf legend Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, has revealed an extraordinary story that captures the unique essence of Augusta National. The 54-year-old, who donned the green jacket in 2004, 2006 and 2010, is set to compete in his 32nd Masters tournament next week, aiming to add to his legendary status at the prestigious event. Despite not visiting Georgia for a pre-tournament scout this year due to changes from Hurricane Helene's wrath last year, Mickelson was full of praise for the dedication of Augusta's greenskeepers during LIV Golf's pre-Masters press conference on Wednesday.
Mickelson said: "I'll give you a little Augusta story if I may while we've got a minute. Speaking of trees going down, I was playing a practice round there one year. It was two weeks prior to the tournament. Probably nobody even knows that this happened.
"But 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, like 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-talkie 'Get off of two, get to 11, get off of four, get to 11'. One hundred workers, I don't know how many – there were a number of workers piling in, racing to this tree, firing up the chainsaws, started cutting this thing down.
"So now the limbs, 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 got back to the 18th tee and I looked down, they're resodding the fairway. You couldn't tell two days later this had happened. I just thought, if that was my home course back [home] 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."
Before taking part in the Masters on April 10, Mickelson is set to play in LIV Golf Miami at the notorious Blue Monster at Trump National Doral this Friday. Mickelson has had a consistent start to the season, currently ranking 15th after four events, with his best performance being a third-place finish in Hong Kong.
He was absent from the season opener in Saudi Arabia due to a shoulder injury.
This article originally appeared on Mirror US
