Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the Southeastern United States final fall, displacing numerous households and ruining an innumerable variety of communities.
Caught within the crossfire was Augusta Nationwide, which suffered intensive harm and noticed quite a few bushes fall.
Regardless of that, again in January, Augusta Nationwide Chairman Fred Ridley offered an replace on how the course fared via the storm.
“[The golf course is] in spectacular situation,” Ridley stated.
“We had minor harm to the course, the taking part in surfaces themselves, however we have been in a position to get that again in form, however I don’t assume you’re going to see any distinction within the situation for the Masters this 12 months.”
Come to search out out, Augusta needed to change 4 greens forward of this 12 months’s Masters Event.
Rory McIlroy revealed the information forward of this week’s Texas Youngsters’s Houston Open.
“There are 4 greens which might be new this 12 months that they’ve redone,” McIlroy stated.
“You take a look at these and see if there’s any new gap positions they provide you, stuff like that.”
McIlroy visited Augusta on Monday earlier than flying out to Houston for this week’s event, which can mark his final PGA Tour begin earlier than The Masters in 13 days.
“I exploit these journeys simply to refamiliarize myself with the place, golf equipment off tees, trying to see in the event that they modified any greens,” McIlroy stated.
“Other than that, actually, for me, it’s good to play a observe spherical with out individuals round, and it kind of takes the stress off the beginning of the week for me. There are quite a lot of obligations, there are large commitments, whether or not it’s from the media or the par-3 event on Wednesday. I similar to to rise up there and really feel like I’m not rushed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the week of the event and that’s often the rationale I am going there.”
One inexperienced Augusta needed to change consists of the well-known par-3 sixteenth, the place Tiger Woods holed maybe essentially the most well-known chip-in in golf historical past. Amazingly, that shot will have a good time its twentieth anniversary at this 12 months’s Masters Event. CBS Broadcaster Verne Lundquist’s name of, “In your life have you ever seen something like that!?” will stay on in Masters lore eternally. However sadly, Lundquist won’t be part of The Masters telecast this 12 months. He retired from calling golf on the sixteenth gap after the 2024 version, but he did assist create one of the vital unimaginable memes of the 12 months.
Nonetheless, Lundquist’s presence — or lack thereof — might be extra noticeable to golf followers than the modifications the membership made to the sixteenth inexperienced.
“The loss of some bushes is unquestionably noticeable, however by way of, they’ve needed to redo that inexperienced, but it surely’s precisely the identical as what it was,” McIlroy stated of 16.
“The outlet will play — other than possibly a number of much less shadows on the inexperienced late within the day due to a few bushes that have been misplaced, however other than that, it’s just about the identical.”
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
