[JSPayne]

So I'm a super at a public golf course that is about 8 years old, in great shape (I do try to be modest  ) and despite being more or less surrounded by houses, is pretty wide open (the houses are set back quite a bit, which leaves alot of room on most holes).

So sometime before I signed on a few years ago, the previous management decided to "toughen up" the course they would plant approx. 500 trees, mostly on the perimeter of roughs, some in between parallel holes. They did a good job with them, I can't complain about the placement too much, and it's not a hodge-podge of species, they stuck to a distinct native tree palate.

Now, many of our regulars are getting excited because the trees are finally starting to grow up and make a bit of difference. More challange for the golfer, maybe.....more headaches for me, certainly. We're already having to do more and more leaf clean-up each year around this time, we need to go through this winter and axe out surface roots that are encroaching and damaging mower blades, and shade is and will become more of an issue to try and grow good grass.

However, as much as I'd like to reduce the population, I have a hard time arguing with their logic, because I do agree that the course is wide open off the tee. And most slightly above average to good golfers can spray it just about anywhere off the tee and still have a good, sometimes easy chance at making par.

I've thought of alternatives to the trees, but none seem very viable. I could plant taller native grasses instead of trees, but pace of play is an issue, being a very busy public course. At least people can find their balls quickly under trees. I could narrow the fairways and grow up the rough.....same deal...too hard and time consuming for the higher handicapper.

Any other suggestions? I agree that the course could stand to toughen up a bit, because we have a large Men's Club with alot of good golfers. Yet we still need to keep it playable and keep up pace of play. Are these tree plantings really the best defense we can give the golf course to force the better players to have to hit it straight (or shape the ball to the hole) off the tee to score well?

[Jud_T]

How about picking up the green speeds and shaving the banks of the greens and creating run-off?

[Carl Rogers]

Riverfront, an early Doak in Suffolk, VA is a development course.

Some careful prudent tree planting at the perimeters (no where near the line of play) of several holes (no. 6, 7, 9 & 16) would soften the development impact.

[Padraig Dooley]

There is a really good chapter in 'The Anatomy of a Golf Course' on tree planting. A few large specimens will invariably add to the site, as well as creating some shotmaking conumdrums.

[RSLivingston_III]

It would be helpful to know more about the course. Are the greens pushed-up, flat? It sounds like bunkering is out? Do you have a photo of a typical hole?

[Robin Doodson]

My advice would be very careful. i look after a golf course which is at the opposite end of the spectrum. for the past 20 years various greens committes have added tree after tree to the golf course until you simply couldn't squeeze any more on.  they also had a habit of using either conifers or massive fig trees to supposedly "frame" greens. years later it is nearly impossible to grow grass on or behind the greens and we now have a major project on our hands to pull all these alien trees out. My only advice would be to only put a tree in the ground if it is miles away from the line of play and it is not in an area where balls are going to regularly end up. i also wouldn't recommend using trees to shape or alter the line of play on a golf course. that's just bad design.

robin

[Rick Shefchik]

Rough doesn't have to be six inches high to be a deterrent. Just because you can find your ball in the rough doesn't mean you can reach the green, or hold it.

[Philippe Binette]

Answering without seeing the course would be stupid.

but I'm offering my services as a golf architect .... 

[Bradley Anderson]

JS,

The architect may have had something to do with the tree plantings. In either case, I would bring him back in to evaluate how they are effecting his design, and then let him decide on wheather they need to be removed, relocated, trimmed, or added.    Keep your fingerprints off of trees.

However you should give your input with repsect to shade.    If there are any trees that are going to become a shade issue down the road, relocate them, NOW    before they become too big.  

(I just love all these cutsie faces)

[Ulrich Mayring]

It may sound a bit cynical, but my experience is that better players are worried about hazards in the line of play and average players are worried about hazards to the side. So all those trees would be more of an issue for the higher handicappers and will not do much to make the better players think.

The logical thing to do in your case would be to take out the trees and replace them with a few centre-line bunkers, ditches across the fairway, specimen trees on the fairway and so on.

Ulrich

[Jud_T]

Planting more trees would seem to be the least creative hazard concept available.....

[Patrick_Mucci]

JSPayne,

Decades and decades ago, many courses flanked their tees with hedges.

This did several things, which were positive.

It created a sense of isolation for the golfer.
It created a safety screen on the tee.
It created, architecturally, an impediment to wildly spraying the ball, especially when the hedges were extended beyond the tee.
It avoided the need to plant trees further down range, since the hedge created the angular barrier
There were NO leaves to worry about.
Trimming the hedges was occassional and required little in the way of maintainance.

I like the prudent use of hedges to flank tees
 

[BCrosby]

What Ulrich said.

Bob

[Norbert P]

" . . .the course is wide open off the tee. And most slightly above average to good golfers can spray it just about anywhere off the tee and still have a good, sometimes easy chance at making par. "    JSPayne

  (Discloser: I have never seen or know where this course is.)

  I know I'm being presumptive but it sounds like the greens' complexes weren't strategically tied-in with the fairway strategies.  The concept of wide fairways isn't to dumb down the game, it's meant to give the players tactical (mental) choices. If the defensive posture of the hole is to add wayward trouble with trees, it will lessen the mental expenditure, but greens complex adjustments will reward and punish accordingly.

 

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