Phil Mickelson drops new Augusta National sign-stealing video ‘evidence’ to support story

The saga of the Phil Mickelson Augusta National sign-stealing incident continued on Friday, with the prosecution dropping video “evidence” to support the bizarre story that surfaced this week.

It’s clear the prosecution has not rested, and, to be clear, the prosecutor is Phil Mickelson himself.

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In case you missed it, the six-time major champion posted a video Thursday night in which he revealed an outrageous sign-stealing scheme he enacted at the Masters back in 2005 and 2006. The scheme involved Mickelson nicking range signs under the cover of darkness so he could practice his favorite towel drill each day of the tournament. You can read all the details and watch the original video here.

The hilarious story quickly went viral, and Mickelson couldn’t resist adding more accelerant to the content fire.

So on Friday, Phil got back on X (formerly known as Twitter) to post a video with a pelzgolf.com watermark showing Mickelson practicing the now infamous “towel drill” at Augusta National, along with a description: “Doing the towel drill (without a sign saying not too 😉)”

In the footage, you can clearly see Lefty, club in hand, in front of a stack of practice balls, with instructor Dave Pelz standing watch in front of him and several towels spread out on the range beyond them.

Check it out here:

As for the veracity of the “evidence,” a few things stand out. First, the figures in the video are clearly Dave Pelz and Phil Mickelson as claimed, with Phil sporting one of the visors he commonly wore in the era.

Second, it appears from the impeccable state of the turf and the familiar surrounding flora that this is indeed Augusta National.

But one detail doesn’t jive with Phil’s story. At the beginning of the video, a second watermark briefly appears in the bottom center of the screen that reads “2006 Masters.” According to Mickelson’s tale, the initial, successful sign-stealing incident took place at the 2005 Masters. The second sign-stealing escapade did occur in 2006, but it was unsuccessful. Mickelson stated in the original video that after he stole the sign for a second time in ’06, he arrived at the range the next morning to find that a new sign had been put in its place, which prevented him from doing his towel drill on the East practice range.

But in the new video, Mickelson is allegedly practicing the towel drill at the 2006 Masters.

So one of three things must be true: 1) This video isn’t actually from the 2006 Masters; 2) The range pictured is not Augusta’s East practice range; or 3) Phil doesn’t quite have his facts straight.

We’ll have to wait for more evidence to make a final judgment.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.