Trees are a fascinating subject

[Tommy Williamsen]

I belong to a couple of different clubs.  This year two of them have had interesting tree discussions.  At one club a number of trees have been removed and most at the club would like to see more cut down.  At another the super wants to take down a willow tree because the roots are creating havoc on his mower. There is an email discussion going on right now about the willow.  I would say about 75% want the tree to go.  Others have said they will purchase a dump truck full of dirt and hide the root system.  

I have to admit, that I don't mind trees if they don't create turf problems. Some trees even make a hole interesting. Ever been to Morfontaine?  It is just interesting how divisive trees can be.

[Sean_A]

Tommy

I don't find the divisiveness interesting at all.  I find it sad that folks can't understand the value of a beautiful specimen or copse to set off a view and perhaps effect the playing strategy of a hole.  Instead, what we mostly get is walls of green where lovely trees are buried by rubbish or worse, no interesting trees at all.  Too often folks confuse golf courses with arboretums.  Much of the time its fine if people want walls of green because the course isn't worth arguing about, but its a shame when a very good course is shrouded in rubbish.  Its my impression that many tree huggers actually come round to the idea of tree management once it has occurred and they can experience better turf, perhaps a better view and more playable experience.  Maybe folks have a hard time visualizing a hole without so many trees or perhaps many people just don't like the idea of change - which would be quite ironic given that courses are dynamic.  

Ciao

[RJ_Daley]

I agree Tommy.  Trees can be the source of plenty of emotion, and can become a large part of the golf course character, negative or positive.  

I also don't totally dislike trees.  It depends on the course setting, climate and native terrain.  I think one of the great mistakes gets down to the species of trees.  We all know the quick landscape simple mindedness that was prevalent in the 50s, with committees, supers that had autonomy to do what they liked, and even some golf architects who planted many coniferous trees willy-nilly.  they were used as barriers and separation between FWs, forcing directional play at open doglegs on unremarkable terrain, and generally, golf design and integrity of the field of play was the last consideration.  

Yet, many a parkland setting is greatly enhanced by trees on a golf course.  They serve a fair element of strategy if they are in proportion to the 3-D space to be negotiated tee to green.  Hardwood deciduous trees, selected for shape, beauty, and not the messy ones that are big brittle branch shedders and crappy leafy mess producers add to the experience on the parkland courses, IMO.   They are just not appreciated if purposely planted in the sand hills and links terrain where no native trees exist in the first place.

[Carl Johnson]

 . . . the super wants to take down a willow tree because the roots are creating havoc on his mower. There is an email discussion going on right now about the willow.  I would say about 75% want the tree to go.  Others have said they will purchase a dump truck full of dirt and hide the root system.

Ask your super, or hire an arborist.  My assumption (I'm not a arborist) is that the roots are on the surface for a nature reason.  Cover them up.  What happens?  Do you kill the tree?  Just askin'.  "Hire a dump truck" is the kind of solution you'd expect from the membership -- let's get the professionals involved.  (We got rid of two willows on my course - beautiful trees - but with them gone, much better golf.)

[Tommy Williamsen]

Carl, the super has already decided to take the tree down.  Guys are just arguing because it is what some do best.  The tree is a goner.  It could be down this week.

[Alex Orens]

Willows, boxelders, silver maples and poplar trees are weeds here in the northeast. No mercy, written by a former utility arborist ( tree trimmer ).

[Tommy Williamsen]

Willows, boxelders, silver maples and poplar trees are weeds here in the northeast. No mercy, written by a former utility arborist ( tree trimmer ).

Agree, willows have no place on a golf course.  They only do harm.

[Ross Tuddenham]

I am not sure about fascinated, but I would be somewhat interested to know why on the montgomerie maxx, royal where the European tour just played the Turkish airlines open, there were tree's in the middle of some of the fairways?  From the coverage it looked like there were trees in the middle of at least the 7th, 13th and 17th fairways.

[Garland Bayley]

...
I have to admit, that I don't mind trees if they don't create turf problems. Some trees even make a hole interesting. Ever been to Morfontaine?  It is just interesting how divisive trees can be.

What about random plantings of 1 or 2 non-native trees? To me they generally look out of place and ugly. For some reason courses here west of the Cascade Mountains have planted the pine trees from the east side. The grow ungainly, look ugly, and die often. In fact that is the best thing that can be said about them, they die easily.

[Carl Johnson]

Yes they are.  At my club I'm fairly well known as anti-tree, which is not entirely true.  I just don't like it when trees interfer with a reasonable line of play, over-crowd fairways, or adversely affect turf quality.  I also like a resonably open view of the entire course, or most of it.  When we rehabed our course 5 years ago, we took down many, many trees, which was a vast improvement (just one of many we made) in my opinion.  But, still, it seems to come down to personal preference.  I also prefer a native landscape, including native trees, particularly hardwoods - again, that's a preference that not everyone at our club shares.  How about trees protecting the inside corner of a dogleg?  We have one of those situations, and the tall trees at the corner prevent all but the very biggest hitters from cutting the corner.  But what happens when the trees die?  One good thing about trees is that when you run out of something to talk about, you can always get a good hypothetical discussion going about what trees should come down and/or where new ones should be planted.

[Steven Blake]

Willows are a problem for golf courses because of the multitude of surface roots which can ruin mower blades and promote unplayable lies.  I would think they are a huge liability if someone decides to hit near the surface roots and hurts themselves.  This is not to mention that they are as messy a tree as they come. These are the tree removals that are easy to decide.  There really is no reason NOT to cut them down.