One probably won't find more explanatory reasons from the "Golden Age" of architecture for trees on a golf course than this;
"The pleasantest type of course is one where the holes are segregated, that is where the hole you happen to be playng is well apart from the others. In order to have this kind of course it is necessary to secure property that is already wooded or to do considerable planting of trees.
The old idea was to have golf courses as free of trees as possible. This notion, no doubt, was imported from Scotland because when golf was first taken up in the United States we knew very little about the game and modeled our courses on those of the Scotch which were, for the most part, built along the seashore where there were no trees.
It is impossible to conceive that the "Canny Scots" would have denuded their courses of trees if there had been any there originally.
Today the old ideas have been discarded and the prevailing belief is that trees, most emphatically, have a fixed place on a golf course. This is true for many reasons:
First-Because there are few, if any, sites available that are devoid of trees and it is a very costly operation to cut them down and remove them.
Second-Trees add beauty to a golf course forming picturesque backgrounds and delightful vistas.
Third-Their shade is most refreshing on a hot summer day.
Fourth-They are of great practical value in segregating the various holes."
"Golf Course Architecture and Construction"
Selecting the Property
By William Flynn
USGA Green Section
July, 1927
William Flynn was an early practitioner of golf architecture and greenkeeping from the early days of golf beginning at Merion Cricket Club in 1911. Meron East did not originally have trees segregating holes (before construction) and as most know the golf course was constructed on property that was and is 126 acres in total, including club facilities. Consequently Merion East should be considered a tight and parallel hole golf course where room between holes for trees has never existed. William Flynn, and his partner Howard Toomey too, were both early members of Pine Valley G.C as were their Merion employers and clients Hugh and Alan Wilson. It's fairly well known that Merion "lent" Flynn's services to Pine Valley following Crump's death to construct the final holes of PVGC that were unfinished at the time of Crump's death in Jan 1918. One could probably logically assume that Flynn got his ideas on trees on golf courses somewhere and as that was still early in his career one could assume with his close connection to PVGC that's probably the most likely place he would've developed those ideas cited above about trees on golf courses and how to use them to segregate golf holes, particularly golf courses that had existing trees before construction. As everyone knows, Pine Valley was George Crump's golf course and daily project from the very beginning and so if one could logically assume the idea of using trees at PVGC to segregate holes had to come from somewhere, it's probably logical to assume the idea was Crump's!
Of course as some on this website point out if nothing can be found that specifically quotes Crump directly as stating he intended to segregate the holes on his course by using both routing width and trees that fact can never be proven---despite all the evidence to the contrary!
