Another Argument for Tree Removal

[A_Clay_Man]

I've been given permission to share with ya'll an e-mail I received yesterday. The author was the patriarch of GOLF, during my stint on the peninsula, at PG. He sold his house and moved to NC. where he's a fixture at Buncombe Muni,(Ross) formerly (and continues to be) known as "The Muni".

Here goes, in it's entirety;

Hey,
 
Let me tell you what happened today.  I'm still a little in shock.
 
I went to play golf this morning with the gang at Buncombe Muni and they had both nines closed working on the greens (the fall aerating).  Four of us (Ted, Doc, and Bobby Bowlin for those who know the gang) decided to go over to Black Mountain and play.  Their course was very sloppy because of all the rain recently (17.75 inches when Frances went through. then Ivan came, and just yesterday Jeanne), but playable. Their seventeenth hole is quite a hole.  It is 747 yards from the blue and 692 from the whites which we were playing.  It is the only par six hole I have ever played.
 
Anyways, I hit my usual weak-ass fade off the tee into a rising slope beyond some trees so we couldn't see it land or what happened to it.  We looked and looked and could not find it and as I came back down the hill, I spotted a ball much further ahead of where we were looking in the fairway.  It must have hit the cart path and really bounced forward.  Good break, eh.
 
When I got to ball, I saw my markings and announced that I had found my ball.  I was about to take my two strap bag off when I heard a strange noise.  I looked back over my shoulder and saw a very large tree falling right on top of me.  I tried to run, but I think I may of only gone two or three steps when I got knocked down flat on my face.  I am shuddering as I write this.  I am guessing this tree was at least three feet in diameter at it base, and the part of the trunk that just missed me was two or two and a half feet in diameter.  Again guessing, I would say the tree (someone said it was a poplar) was about 70 or 80 feet high.   The base of the tree was part way up the rising slope about five or six feet higher than where we were standing which gave it a little extra energy as it came down.  It stretched almost all the way across the fairway.
 
It was right on line with Ted and Bobby as well.  I was closest to the base, then Ted, and then Bobby.  Ted looked up as I did and ran out from under everything, but he left his clubs behind.  His pull cart was destroyed. He left it in the tree and carried his strapless bag in by the handle.  Bobby was watching the tree fall when he suddenly realized the top of it was going to reach him.  He then tried to get away with his hand over his head.  Something hit him on one of his fingers which was sore and swollen.  His cart was also destroyed and the expensive driver, that he had finally found that he could hit pretty well, was snapped off about eight inches from the head.  Doc was ahead of us and a good bit to the left of us so he was in no danger.  He watched with a helpless feeling.
 
The driver breaking was the worst thing that happened (provided Bobby's finger is okay).  I must have been hit by a branch, but I think the branch hit my golf bag as I have no recollection of being struck anywhere, just a feeling of being pushed or knocked down.  I was not covered up so I must have been knocked away as well as down.  The ground was nice and soft so I really didn't get hurt at all - amazing.  Oh yes, I moved my ball out from under the tree and proceeded to make a par 6 on the hole.
 
I am not sure this is very interesting to you all, but I think it is doing me good to tell you.     Lucky Jim

[A_Clay_Man]

A follow-up;

The head pro has refused to pay for the cart or the driver.

I suggested to Lucky Jim that the head pro would change his mind after the lawyer's first letter.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Adam,
Your first post was interesting reading, I didn't care for your second. Maybe it's because I work on a course, but why should the head pro pay for the driver?

[SL_Solow]

With the caveat that in legal matters the advice you get generally equals the amount paid for it, I think your friend will have real problems.  As a rule, a customer of an enterprise such as a golf course assumes all reasonable risks.  Unless the course owner/operator knew or should have known that the tree was in a weakened position so that his failure to remove the tree was negligent, it is highly unlikely that he will be held liable.  The falling tree will be viewed as an act of g_d.

[A_Clay_Man]

I was just reporting the facts. I would think the owner would cover all reasonable damages to his paying customers, for damages they suffered, in this type of instance. Especially since no one was hurt, and no one will sue. It sure beats the liability premium, doesn't it?

Don- As a course owner wouldn't you try to apease your customers, if this had happened to them?

[LenBum]

 A follow-up;

The head pro has refused to pay for the cart or the driver.

I suggested to Lucky Jim that the head pro would change his mind after the lawyer's first letter.




Adam, why should the head pro be responsible? Wouldn't the owner  be the one to contact?

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Try your homeowners policy!  Hope the driver was really expensive or the deductible is really low!  

Now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that tort reform can't come soon enough!  

Glad you're all OK and the worst of it was only a driver, a pull cart, and a possible broken finger.

[Jason Mandel]

Today at a member-guest at our club it appears that two sets of clubs were stolen.  They could have been taken home by mistake but right now it appears they were stolen.  At our club after you play either a bag room kid or your caddie drives your clubs off to a drop spot.  

This wasn't the first time this has ever happened but it is certainly very rare.  Our club has agreed to pay for the all replacements if the clubs aren't found, but are they legally bound to?

[Don_Mahaffey]

Adam,
I'd be thrilled no one got killed or badly hurt and I'd put a new shaft in his driver if I could. But, I've had golfers fall into creeks who think I should buy them a new shirt, golfers who broke clubs on trees who think I should buy them a new club, stuff like that. I'd do what I thought was fair, but when lawyers and lawsuits get brought up I circle the wagons.

[A_Clay_Man]

Don- I'm not litigious, and I know that Lucky Jim would never consider any action legal, or otherwise. However, I do see the big difference between these self-inflicted incidents you site, versus this act of god experienced at Black Rock.

I think it funny that someone suggests this is an example for the case for tort reform. Hell, a schister would likely try to attach the architect, in this case, for placing the cart path where they did, that caused Jim's ball to go to the spot it could never have reached otherwise.  

I'm with you Don, If people need lawyers to force the right thing, we're all MOSTLY in trouble. (For the benefit of the lawyers who do not fit that profile)

[SL_Solow]

Glad to see wherew you come out on this Adam.  The misperception arose out of your reference to a letter from a lawyer in your early comments.  As one who has been asked to write such letters, they are intended to do only one thing; threaten litigation whether the threat is expressed or implied.  Thus before I write such a letter (generally in the commercial context as I am not a tort lawyer) I try to determine whether the aggrieved party has a good claim and whether they are serious about pursuing it.  But not everybody takes that much care.  While I wouldn't write a letter covering the situation you described, I know there are a lot of lawyers who would.  Whether it would have been a good pr move for the course to pay for the driver, cart etc. is really a judgment call on the owner's part.  On these facts I see no obligation.

[A_Clay_Man]

Shel- I don't know boo about trees. I do remember one day at Spyglass Hill the winds were so high that the course was cleared of people, for fear there could be damage to someone's person. It seemed logical to me, since there was an ongoing Pitch Cancre disease problem, and, that the trees could've been in a weakend state and therfore more susceptible to falling.

As the title of this thread states, Is this another reason for more diligent inspection and subsequent removal of trees?

nae wind, nae golf, nae trees, more wind.