This has been discussed many times.

It's rare when you can view the before and after photos from approximately the same angle, but, the photos that follow will provide you with that perspective.

Photos will be posted in sets of one or two holes.

The first two photos posted are the 1st and 4th holes.

I think one could say that the results are dramatic.

The corridors of play have been opened up, the sunshine more available, air circulation better, the turf is healthier and the wind is more of factor when playing the golf course.

All benefits of a tree clearing program.

Why wouldn't you remove trees that weren't there when the golf course opened ?

I like the way they curved that hedge in between the tees on #1...sweet

Ugh, I was just going to comment that I liked what they did other than making you drive over that ugly hedge from the back tees.  Though it is better than the foreshortened perspective look on the old where the hedges are angled slightly inwards.

Couldn't disagree more. Trees are a vital part of nature. They provide shade and prevent wind, define straight-line fairway contours, isolate your views from the surrounds, and provide safety barriers for shots as well as interesting carom possibilities for carefully placed recovery shots. Plus, they provide total punishment for wayward drives. Why should anyone who strays from the narrow path down the middle enjoy any possibility of getting the ball back into play?

Unfortunately, many older courses were built on dull, wide-open farm fields. Over the years, wise green chairmen, with the use of "beautification programs" and lovely memorial tree programs, have seen fit to adorn the golf course with prize-winning species of park-like trees, many of them selected by landscape contractors for their aggressive growth habits, low spreading canopy, ornamental flowers, and their ability to fill up space that would otherwise look undefined. Plus, it's an advantage to golfers when trying to figure out the yardage to have christmas trees and other confiers readily denoting 200-150-100 yard distances from the greens.

I also like huge, tent-like beech trees directly behind greens so that when you're riding to the next hole, you can stop, go under, and light your cigar there in the safety of the limbs, removed from the wind.

All told, trees are great for golf courses and I would insist on planting more wherever possible. I think removing them is a scandal.

 Brad,
     Thanks! Now my friends will use your comments word for word, not knowing you are joking.

That's the  best of the Brad Klein we all know and love. Some of the stuff Brad Klein unloads on audiences is some of the best "delayed reaction humor" I've ever seen. I've actually seen an audience of maybe a couple of hundred after Brad hit them with something like the above sit there and look at each other for up to about 10 seconds before sort of simultaneously figuring out Brad was putting them on----and they all started roaring with laughter while I sat in the corner and let out the air our after holding my breath!!  

But one of these days Brad might run into an audience who actually thinks he's serious about some of those comments like the above. I'm just wondering what Brad's gonna say then.

My suggestion would be:

"You people really are gullible idiots, aren't you?"

The removal of trees that you have shown obviously produces a better looking and playing hole.
I think the removal of trees in an overgrown circumstance is appropriate, however, to ask why trees shoukld remain if they were not there when the course opened IMHO is a stretch.

Without getting back into the Pine Valley..did Crump want isolation or not..issue,there are certainly some courses that benefit from the maturity of trees that may be planted after a golf course opens.
I am the first to accept that this can get out of control, such as Pine Valley , Walton Heath and Sunningdale all come to mind..but to send them all the way back to the barren wide open spaces they exhibited on opening day may not be the best answer..again IMHO

Kevin Reilly,

Was the cart path on #4 relocated or removed?
It was relocated to the right side of the tees.[/color]

The one plus on #1 was that the hedge obscured the view of the cart paths on the left, that are easily visible in the "after" picture.   Could be just the photo angle.

The New photo is taken from a new, elevated back tee.
There is an intervening cart path between the new tee and the old tee.

The additional height tends to reveal more.
The cart paths, all 19,000 liinear feet, are all but invisible as the golfer plays the golf course.
Hedge height also screens the view.[/color]

Doug Siebert,

I see that you're a graduate of the Tom MacWood and TEPaul school of erroneous interpretive photography.  How would you have done it ?

More pictures will be posted this afternoon.

I will submit that the "Benefit" of clearing trees at Peachtree GC will be "exceptional", because once the "majority" of the trees have been removed , the fairways will once again have grass covering them from tee to green (too many current areas where grass won't grow due to too much shade).

Then, when the "key" shaded areas are eliminated, the firm and fast conditions of days gone by will once again return, allowing, the superintendent to finally grow "rough"  which will then serve as the main penalty for missing the fairways at PGC. Obviously, the green complexes will also benefit from the increased sun and air circulation once the trees are taken down.

The "new irrigation"  being installed throughout the course  will finally get much needed water to the rough thus giving it a chance to flourish in the "new sunlight" it will soon be afforded!!!!

Probably by the summer of 2006, when these projects will likely be completed, PGC will once again be the talk of Atlanta.

How is an ultra-exclusive private club supposed to cultivate its aura of shrouded secrecy unless a dense jungle of trees is planted completely around its perimeter?

I'd add that hedge to your tree clearing program as well.

Scott Coan,

I'd add that hedge to your tree clearing program as well.


WHY ?[/color]

Not confused at all, Patrick. I wasn't specifically referring to the photos you posted -- though, without knowing the holes, it certainly seemed possible that some of trees were planted to create privacy after the course was designed.

I raised the issue because I think it is an issue. I believe many golf clubs have compromised the original playing corridors of their perimeter holes in order to plant privacy trees. I can think of a few in the Twin Cities, including Town & Country, Somerset, Midland Hills and Forest Hills, just off the top of my head.