Augusta’s iconic Eisenhower Tree felled

One of Augusta National’s most iconic features will be missing from this year’s Masters following the enforced removal of the course’s famous Eisenhower Tree.

It is not just Irish golf courses having to cope with extreme weather conditions this winter with the home of the year’s opening major championship in Georgia subjected to an ice storm that caused irreparable damage to the tree which stood on the 17th fairway.

The loblolly pine, named after the former US President Dwight Eisenhower whose ball struck it so many times off the 17th tee that he asked for its removal, finally got the chop courtesy of the climate rather than executive orders with Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne explaining the tree lost “most major branches” and was removed at the weekend.