Bill, The tree is really only in play for hackers, because the fairway slopes down away from the tee and any competent golfer knocks the ball out over the trees on the left (and they're scrubby little trees - hawthorns, that sort of thing) and the bigger problem is running out of fairway by driving too far. I imagine that in his prime the Ryder Cup Captain to whom James refers would have tried to drive the green. It's only 357 yards from tee to green, but metaphorically MUCH longer.