Did Lawsonia go too far?

[Jason Thurman]

My last visit to Lawsonia was a few years ago, when they had only cleared a few trees behind the 14th green. In the following 18 months or so, they cleared all the trees behind 14 to restore the hole to its appearance in old photos.

I recall being a lone voice of dissent when the trees behind 14 were cleared. While I love open vistas and air flow and sunlight, I also loved the 2008 version of the 14th hole. In the middle of this expansive journey through the back nine came this brief 200 yard journey into the woods as you entered the 13th green and then played the 14th hole. Time seemed to stop, the surroundings grew quiet and still, and a well-struck ball echoed and traced its flight against a deep green backdrop as it flew to the treacherous green. On a course with a fantastic set of par 3s, the 14th was an average hole that more than held its own only because of its unique ambiance in the context of the round.

That's all gone now. The trees have been leveled and the hole's character returned closer to its origin. I'm sure the once-mottled putting surface has seen its turf improve. And yet, I didn't love it when the first few trees were cleared, and I hated the idea of further clearing. Now, I'm told, the course has removed ALL the trees on its back nine, which will be odd to see in photos and probably even odder in person.

Of course, Lawsonia also dropped about 50 spots in this year's Golfweek ratings. There have been a few explanations offered, but none of them make much sense based on reports from people who have been to the course directly. Is it possible that Lawsonia's precipitous drop is partially related to a once excellent tree program that went rogue?

[PCCraig]

Jason,

I really liked the tree removal behind the 14th green when I saw it last fall. It makes the green look far more dramatic and interesting from the tee, and I like that you can now see the 15th tee from the 14th hole. And, you can now see Green Lake from the 14th green.

I see what you're saying about the trees around the 13th green, but I always thought that they were out of place with the rest of the course. I haven't seen any pictures of the recent removal, but I'm guessing the approach to the 13th green will be improved as it will now be a pretty neat "skyline" green.

I don't think tree removal has anything to do with the Links dropping on Golfweek's Classic list. Candidly, it's drop makes absolutely no sense to me. As I said before, Lawsonia's conditioning has continued to improve on my visits, and last fall it was in fantastic shape with legit fast green speeds and firm turf. 

[RJ_Daley]

Jason, there are enough trees still there.  The ones behind the green are gone.  Some to either side of the par 3 corridor were thinned.  But, it isn't devoid of trees.  The course played as firm and fast andd true rolls as I have ever seen it in Sept. when I was there with Pete Pittock.  I think any drop in the almighty rankings is just a matter of too many great courses, not enough slots to rank them all, and so there is 'bracket or slot creep'.

If a person wants trees at Lawsonia, they need only pay for a round on the "Woodlands Course" there.   

[Andy Stamm]

The tree removal has been outstanding, in my opinion. I thought 14 really needed it, and I was glad to see that it got some when I was out in 2013. I'd like to see more there. At that point I really wanted to see more come down at 13. I don't think that 13 'needed it' as much as 14, but I do think it'll be an improvement, and I'm sure it'll help with the green's turf. So if that's happened I can't wait to see it this summer. For my money, all the trees in that corner should go. In addition to just simply preferring it that way, I thought that corner was incongruous with the rest of the course.

[William_G]

the tree removal was a good thing, great course

the drop in ratings might be related to an event there when the course not in good condition, who knows   

[Mike Hogan]

There was a GW rater retreat in May that included a visit to Lawsonia.
It was late spring after a tough winter and the course showed it. Lots of die back. Many dead patches of grass in fairways and on a number of greens. This may have something to do with it dropping so many places. 20-30 raters giving low scores could bring it down and could have something to do with it.

My 2 cents.

[RJ_Daley]

Yes, last April was brutal.  Jus about every course here in Whisky was suffering.

[Steven Blake]

I love the trees gone!

I can't wait to see all of the trees that were removed this past winter from 13 and what was left on 14. Once the season opens might have to play a round to see the improvement.  I bet it will be awesome.


Steve Blake

[Dan Kelly]

Pay no attention to those men behind the curtains!

The great and mighty raters have spoken!

[DMoriarty]

Considering whether tree clearance can go too far is a potentially interesting topic. But to pretend that a ratings drop (or rise) somewhere down in the pack has anything at all to do with the quality of the golf course?  Silly. 

[Sven Nilsen]

There was a GW rater retreat in May that included a visit to Lawsonia.
It was late spring after a tough winter and the course showed it. Lots of die back. Many dead patches of grass in fairways and on a number of greens. This may have something to do with it dropping so many places. 20-30 raters giving low scores could bring it down and could have something to do with it.

My 2 cents.

If that's the case, I think they should have foregone one of the rounds and had Brad lecture on looking past conditioning (or at least trying to understand why things are the way they are) and seeing the merits of the course.  Would have been time better spent.

Sven

[Dan Moore]

It appears Lawsonia dropped in the polls due the triple whammy of a drought in 2012 that resulted in Green Lake County being declared a national disaster area in summer of 2012 and winter kill exacerbated by a miserable spring that didn't allow them time to recover from the drought and winter until June.  I visited over the 4th of July weekend last year and no doubt saw a very different course than what was there 4-5 weeks earlier.  It was in fine condition.

Here is a photo from late September 2012 showing how dry Lawsonia was at the end of the season in 2012.  The course was clearly stressed heading into the winter.



Here is another photo showing Lawsonia July 4th weekend once the course had a chance to recover.  Lush and beautiful.  



The greens in the trees on 13 and 14 have always struggled.  I think it is a great move to clear the area of non-original evergreens that engulfed those greens to give them more light and airflow like the rest of the greens on the course.  

Here is 14 many years ago.  No evergreens in this photo.



Here is what 14 looked before any tree removal.  Claustrophobically tight.



Here is what it looked like in late 2012 after trees on the right (south) and behind the the green were removed.



I think the tree removal will look great as it will open up some wide open vistas from the high point of the course on the back nine that will be great.  Imagine these views without the trees.

[Jim Colton]

There was a GW rater retreat in May that included a visit to Lawsonia.
It was late spring after a tough winter and the course showed it. Lots of die back. Many dead patches of grass in fairways and on a number of greens. This may have something to do with it dropping so many places. 20-30 raters giving low scores could bring it down and could have something to do with it.

My 2 cents.

Does the host club get greens fee revenue from the panelist outings? A cautionary tale for having a large group of raters out in less than ideal conditions.

[Mark Pearce]

Dan,

It's probably the Brit in me but those late 2012 photos look perfect.  Far preferable to the July '13 greenery.  Lawsonia remains the course that has most exceeded my expectations.

[Adam Clayman]

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

[Mike Hogan]

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

Adam I agree. I loved the course and could see the great architecture.

The guys I played with complained abouth the conditions, said they just didn't get it and couldn't believe it was rated so high. I'm not sure if they had heard about Lawsonia prior or not but they were on the trip to play Whistling Straights and the other Kohler courses.

Out of our foursome I was the only one that liked the course. The others said they liked the Woodland course more. I didn't see it that way.

 

[Terry Lavin]

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

Maybe only the blueprints should be evaluated?  I'm sure conditioning could be overrated on either end of the spectrum, but I have no problem with it being a factor. The ability to ignore subpar conditioning can't be all that different than those who prize "perfect" conditioning. At the end of the day, the golf course is getting rated as an aid to people who might use the ratings to decide to play a course. I'm guessing that a good maintenance meld would be seen as a positive by people who actually use the ratings.

[Dan Moore]

Terry I agree the maintenance meld of a course is important part of evaluating architecture and getting that right makes the architecture and the course shine.  The issue here though is whether a brief period of poor conditions caused by exceptional weather circumstances should have been overlooked when rating a course that had been consistently in the middle half of the Top 100. 

Lawsonia has been steadily improving since they hired Ron Forse in the 00's.  I'm confident course conditions and the overall golf experience at Lawsonia will continue to improve now that Oliphant of Madison (who is partnering with Mike Keiser on Sand Valley) is in charge of both the course and the clubhouse operations. 

Personally I can't wait to see the tree removal around 13 and 14. 

[BCowan]

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

+2

[J_ Crisham]

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

Maybe only the blueprints should be evaluated?  I'm sure conditioning could be overrated on either end of the spectrum, but I have no problem with it being a factor. The ability to ignore subpar conditioning can't be all that different than those who prize "perfect" conditioning. At the end of the day, the golf course is getting rated as an aid to people who might use the ratings to decide to play a course. I'm guessing that a good maintenance meld would be seen as a positive by people who actually use the ratings.

Terry,     An example of your statement is Beverly. When our maintenance practices became admittedly very marginal the Bev tumbled from the top !00. 2 years after turning the ship around Beverly is at a very respectable position, #93 amongst the Golfweek classics. Poor conditioning affects the view of raters first impressions- if it looks ratty the course will get dinged a few points. Lawsonia has always looked great when I've visited.

[Jason Thurman]

Conditioning probably doesn't matter when evaluating architecture alone, but it has to matter when evaluating golf courses. The ratings attempt (very poorly, I'm convinced) to do the latter, not the former.

Mark, I think most of us would be excited to play the course shown in Dan's September 2012 photo. However, I think his point is that with a harsh Wisconsin winter about to hit the course was very dry and the turf stressed. The stressed turf combined with 4 or 5 months of snow and ice coverage is a recipe for winter kill out there.

It's funny to read Adam's quote:

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

Isn't one of the main reasons for tree removal the improved playing conditions?

I'm totally on board with that by the way, and I also think the views will be impressive if they've really pulled out as many as has been alleged. But even with the poor airflow and sunlight in the prior version, I really enjoyed walking into that corner of the property for 200 yards or so, especially in late fall when the air got a little colder in the shadows and you could feel the looming winter just a few weeks away. It was just a special place in the routing for me, and I may be alone on GCA but I'm surely not alone among people who used to play Lawsonia frequently.

Hopefully I can get back there when I go to Wisconsin for work at the end of April. I'd like to see how it's changed over the last 2 years or so. I'd be happy to meet up with anyone who's interested.

[BCowan]

Dan,

   Are they going to remove the trees to the sides of the tee box on the par 3 (the chute)?  The chute is kinda of cool, really like them if they are pulled off well.  I do agree the tree removal behind the green would be an improvement. (Just going by photos, never played).

[Dan Moore]

Ben, 

We'll have to see to be sure but the chute is gone from what I hear.

[Bill Seitz]

It would truly be sad if maintenance were an issue in evaluating architecture.

Maybe only the blueprints should be evaluated?  I'm sure conditioning could be overrated on either end of the spectrum, but I have no problem with it being a factor. The ability to ignore subpar conditioning can't be all that different than those who prize "perfect" conditioning. At the end of the day, the golf course is getting rated as an aid to people who might use the ratings to decide to play a course. I'm guessing that a good maintenance meld would be seen as a positive by people who actually use the ratings.

Terry,     An example of your statement is Beverly. When our maintenance practices became admittedly very marginal the Bev tumbled from the top !00. 2 years after turning the ship around Beverly is at a very respectable position, #93 amongst the Golfweek classics. Poor conditioning affects the view of raters first impressions- if it looks ratty the course will get dinged a few points. Lawsonia has always looked great when I've visited.

As well conditioned as Beverly is, though, my guess is that it's in a lot better condition in mid-summer than mid-May (at least that's been my experience).  It's unfortunate if Lawsonia dropped in the rankings due to conditioning issues based on a rater retreat held at a time of year when the course couldn't possibly be expected to be in its best condition.  For all I know they took that into account and it was in bad shape even for that time of year.  

Conditioning certainly needs to be one of the factors that go into a course rating (as Terry noted, you're reviewing the course, not the blueprints), but if I were rating a course and the greens had just been punched (for example), or if a portion of the course were under construction, I couldn't possibly justify dinging the course for that reason, because it's common and necessary to punch the greens a couple times per year or do some bunker work from time to time.  It's also fairly common for Midwestern courses to be in rough shape at the beginning of the season.  You'd hope the raters would have the common sense to allow for that in their review.  Also, maybe don't schedule a rater retreat at an upper Midwestern course at a time of year when the course is almost certain to not be in its best shape.  

To Jason's point about tree removal improving the conditions, when we were up the for the Mashie a few years ago, I thought 14 had the worst conditioned tee box on the course.  Of course, it's tee box, so it wasn't that big of a deal (albeit a par 3 tee box).  Hopefully the tree removal goes a long way toward rectifying that.

[Sean_A]

Dan,

It's probably the Brit in me but those late 2012 photos look perfect.  Far preferable to the July '13 greenery. 

Agree with that, it looks it's really humming in the 2012 pics...a sort of Royal Melbourne feel to it...

Thats what I was thinking.  Often times there will be spotty areas if a course is really pushed (for whatever reason).  In any case, conditioning should only really be a factor in design evaluation if its exceptional either way.  For me, its mainly the 12 month courses which play very well in all seasons which will get a boost in my evaluation, but its quite rare either way.  That said, there are few more wonderful things in golf than to be playing a zippy course in great nick - its ever so rare in my experience.

Ciao