Trees on links and moorland courses

[Thomas Dai]

Tree on links and moorland courses......."What!" I can hear folks say


Sometimes links and moorland (inc upland/downland) courses have a few trees scattered around the place, not necessarily planted one's, just one's that have sprouted naturally through bird, animal, wind etc activity. Once upon a time I guess grazing animals would have dealt with them, not so likely now though.


Leave them, trim them, move them or generally cut them down?


atb

[Jon Wiggett]

In GB&I chainsaw time Thomas.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Thomas - I think they look okay sometimes and sometimes not, but a lot is what you just get used too.

They lined some of the fairways with pine trees in 1962 on a certain Scottish golf course that hosts the Open Championship every five years. Fortunately they did not survive.

[Kalen Braley]

Pac Dunes, which many consider a links course has lots of trees.  I wouldn't cut down any of them...

[Pete Lavallee]

atb, 

Trees on heathland courses are great, just don't ask me to curve my ball around them! Walton Heath is a great example, they have some beautiful specimen trees but they are all outside the corridors of play, mainly behind greens providing beauty without intruding. When you think about it planting trees within playing corridors is very risky as they tend too grow! At just what stage are they perfect, not too long I would imagine.

[Thomas Dai]

Thomas - I think they look okay sometimes and sometimes not, but a lot is what you just get used too.
They lined some of the fairways with pine trees in 1962 on a certain Scottish golf course that hosts the Open Championship every five years. Fortunately they did not survive.

Sounds alarming Adrian. Glad they didn't survive.
atb

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

A few here and there is ok, for example around the clubhouse or to shelter some tees. In winter it can be a great relief to get some shelter during a heavy shower or when the hail is coming at you horizontally.
 
I'm not a fan of the line of pine trees on the right of the 4th at Portmarnock. I don't know if they were put there for shelter purposes when sand is blown in during the winter. I do recall attending the Irish Open in the late 80s or early 90s and seeing small saplings between the 4th and 5th fairways, so I guess some were planted for aesthetic purposes.
 
I can't explain why, but I hate to see lovely natural dune land smothered by trees; it just doesn't seem right. The first nine at Noordwijk is a sad example. Royal Hague and Formby would also look very different if the chain saws were let in.  The trees at Lytham don't appear to spoil the experience, but maybe that's because Lytham doesn't feel like a links course, although it certainly is.

[Paul Gray]

We had quite a few at Haylingonce upon a time vbut they ALL came down. Whilst I agreed with the sentiment in terms of the turf, I do wish a few had been spared as they were just a feature which made the links its own.

Whenever this subject comes up I'm reminded of the member that I bumped into last year on a Sunday afternoon and joined up with for a few holes. Lovely guy but this gem came out of his mouth when discussing the tree removal: "They were nice but they weren't natural here. They just self seeded."

I've yet to think up a more natural event than a seed finding its way on the breeze to a suitable spot from which to flourish! 

[Sean_A]

I don't mind trees on any type of course...if they are the right trees in the right spots.


Ciao