Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the Southeastern United States last fall, displacing countless families and ruining an innumerable number of communities.
Caught in the crossfire was Augusta National, which suffered extensive damage and saw numerous trees fall.
Despite that, back in January, Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley provided an update on how the course fared through the storm.
“[The golf course is] in spectacular condition,” Ridley said.
“We had minor damage to the course, the playing surfaces themselves, but we were able to get that back in shape, but I don’t think you’re going to see any difference in the condition for the Masters this year.”
Come to find out, Augusta had to replace four greens ahead of this year’s Masters Tournament.
Rory McIlroy revealed the news ahead of this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open.
“There are four greens that are new this year that they’ve redone,” McIlroy said.
“You have a look at those and see if there’s any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that.”
McIlroy visited Augusta on Monday before flying out to Houston for this week’s tournament, which will mark his last PGA Tour start before The Masters in 13 days.
“I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens,” McIlroy said.
“Apart from that, honestly, for me, it’s nice to play a practice round without people around, and it sort of takes the pressure off the start of the week for me. There are a lot of obligations, there are big commitments, whether it be from the media or the par-3 tournament on Wednesday. I just like to get up there and feel like I’m not rushed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the week of the tournament and that’s usually the reason I go there.”
One green Augusta had to change includes the famous par-3 16th, where Tiger Woods holed perhaps the most famous chip-in in golf history. Amazingly, that shot will celebrate its 20th anniversary at this year’s Masters Tournament. CBS Broadcaster Verne Lundquist’s call of, “In your life have you seen anything like that!?” will live on in Masters lore forever. But unfortunately, Lundquist will not be a part of The Masters telecast this year. He retired from calling golf on the 16th hole after the 2024 edition, yet he did help create one of the most incredible memes of the year.
Nevertheless, Lundquist’s presence — or lack thereof — will be more noticeable to golf fans than the modifications the club made to the 16th green.
“The loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable, but in terms of, they’ve had to redo that green, but it’s exactly the same as what it was,” McIlroy said of 16.
“The hole will play — apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost, but apart from that, it’s pretty much the same.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
