Phil Mickelson was caught red-handed getting up to no good at 2004 Masters

Phil Mickelson dropped an hilarious one-liner about gambling after revealing he was caught red-handed getting up to no good at the Masters. 

Cast your mind back to 2004 and a 33-year-old Mickelson was still searching for his first major. 

It seemed hard to believe given his obvious talent and the fact he had already racked up multiple PGA Tour titles. 

Mickelson came into the major in good form having won the American Express shortly before teeing it up at Augusta National. 

At this point in time Mickelson was working with the short game guru Dave Pelz. His book, Pelz's Short Game Bible, was New York Times 'national best-seller' in 1999. 

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"I'm going to tell you a little story," Mickelson explained in a video that was posted to his social media channels on 24 August. 

"I'm going to take you back 20 years to the Masters of 2004 - my first major win. And just prior to that I just started working with Dave Pelz and we would do a towel drill."

Mickelson explained that at this point in his career one of his favourite drills involved laying out towels at different yardages up to 175 yards. 

Then he would smash ball after ball at each target. Mickelson explained that he enjoyed practicing on the east driving range at Augusta. 

The only problem was, for some reason, there was a sign that read:

"So I can no longer hit those shots like I was doing," Mickelson said. 

Lefty explained that after the champions' dinner - in honour of 2003 winner Mike Weir - he drove down Magnolia Lane then crawled through the flowers before pinching the sign. 

"I wiggle and I wiggle," Mickelson said with a cheeky grin. "I lift and I yank it out and I throw it into the back of my SUV. Off I go."

Mickelson then proceeded to spend the rest of the week doing the towel drill without being stopped. 

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Watch the drill: 

Doing the towel drill (without a sign saying not too ) pic.twitter.com/95k3ccQGA3

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 25, 2023

Of course, he went on to win and leapt up into the air in an image that has now become iconic. 

Perhaps not as iconic as a Tiger Woods going ballistic after that chip but still awesome nonetheless. 

A year later the sign was back.

Yet again Mickelson waited until after the past champions' dinner before uprooting the sign and throwing it in the back of his SUV. 

The next day he showed up and the sign, curiously, was back. 

"It never dawned on me there were cameras everywhere," Mickelson said.

"And there's some video of me crawling under the magnolias with some guy [a security guard] saying, 'Look at this idiot! What is he doing?'. 

"Now, a lot of you might not bet that's not a true story. Now I am not a betting man so I am not going to take it." 

Well... it is true:

Look at this picture in all of its magnificence:

Watch Mickelson tell the story here:

Story time with Phil (me:)

Enjoy pic.twitter.com/koePrh38Il

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 25, 2023

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