Eisenhower Pine Doesn't Survive Ice Storm

((HT: Scott Michaux/Augusta Chronicle))

For twenty golf-playing years, President Dwight Eisenhower lobbied to have a particular pine tree on the 17th hole removed...

This one...
((HT: Augusta National Golf Club/CBS))


In 1956, he wanted it down and told a meeting of the club so...
Even former US presidents don't get their way in Augusta...

But Augusta National chairman Billy Payne confirmed to Michaux that the tree did not survive the recent ice storm in east Georgia, so it looks like Ike got his wish anyway:

"The loss of the Eisenhower Tree is difficult news to accept," Payne said. "We obtained opinions from the best arborists available and, unfortunately, were advised that no recovery was possible."

So, now what...???

There's talk that there was already a substitute tree ready for implantation onto the 17th, but no one knows if the tree that may or may not exist has survived the ice storm or was or was not even be effected...

Got that...???