Our third hole, a dogleg left par 5 had a tree in the middle (played 562 blue/527 white/443 Red). It was located approximately 200 yrds from the green. A creek intersected the fairway about 100 yrds from the green. The remnants of Hurricane Ike hit St. Louis Sunday and dropped 4-5 inches of rain. This apparently was the final straw for the tree which toppled as a result of the storm.
View from tee:
note: It isn’t shown on this picture due to when the picture was taken, but there is a bunker at the far end of the fairway
The view from the tree taken from about 220 yrds from the center of the green:
Lastly, a view of the green site. The bunker front left was about 40 yrds short of the green and was filled in (thought to be too penal to the high handicappers). Green is very long (35 yrds with a swale in the middle)
Lastly, an aerial:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=grenbriar+hills+near+63102&ie=UTF8&ll=38.575363,-90.451453&spn=0.003212,0.006824&t=h&z=18- new bunker is visible from the first pic and the greenside bunker is removed in the last pic.
When it existed, it was a sizable vertical hazard which dictated where you wanted to land your tee shot. If too short, woods to the right blocked you out (also, the creek winds to the right of the green). If too far into the neck of the dogleg, the tree could block a second shot. It could affect both layups and attempts to go for the green.
There has been some debate here about the merits of trees in fairways, which, at least for my club are now moot.
Since the tree had such strategic implications, I am pondering what our course of action should be (if we decide not to leave it alone and see how it plays before doing anything).
Some thoughts:
- Extend the bunker at the fair end of the fairway to be more of a cross hazard to give the long hitters something to think about from the tee
- Add bunkers to the left side of the green to make approach shots a little more dicey
Open to suggestions. Thanks.