Now that's a good use of trees to affect play.

[mike_malone]

   I played a modest course yesterday, Wildwood in New Jersey.
    #8 had OB beyond a line of trees on the left. It was 400 yards. Just before the green (30 yards+/-)the trees on the right came out to cover a small portion of the green from a straight shot from the right side of the fairway. There was a bunker left of the green but none on the right. The green had a gentle slope from back left to front right.

   What I liked was that
    #1 the OB gets you to favor the right side on your drive  
   #2 there was no bunker right which would have been like a double hazard
   #3 the slope of the green  that helped hold the well hit shot from the right, but would repel the left to right shot.

       Finally, I think the group of trees was a better idea then just a single tree , because it would not ruin the stategy if one or two trees died.



    I did find another reason that I don't like thick lines of trees between parallel fairways. If one misses the fairway by ten yards they have no shot but if they miss wildly they have a shot.

  Would a designer intentionally punish the slight mishit so much more then the significantly off line one ?

[Doug Siebert]

How is having that line of trees any different than if there were bunkers, a stream or foot tall grass where the trees were?  Anytime you have another fairway within reach off the tee, you have a situation where a really bad miss (or clever thinking) leaves one with a better shot than a smaller miss.

At least with the trees the shot is more difficult because you may end up with a blind shot and depending on how close you are to the trees and what you club you need the shot may be dicey to clear the trees and still reach the green.  Plus anytime you play from the wrong fairway determining distance is a problem, unless I guess you have GPS or can laser the pin through the trees somehow.

[mike_malone]

 Doug,

    I  think that the designer would have considered  the various possibilities if there was a preexisting creek. He also would have presumably recommended the deep rough and put in the bunkers in place of the trees. He could then adjust the challenges around the green to make up for that.

   My main concern is how these tree plantings dramatically alter how a course was intended to play. So many times the edges of the green and the problems just off the green were designed to challenge those shots that just miss the fairway and the challenge increases as one goes father off line.

   


   

[mike_malone]

 This course was done in 1916 . I think that may have been before the Haskell ball. ? So, the distance between parallel fairways was obsoleted rather quickly.

 I suggested to opponents from the club that they should play the course with hickories; it would be a blast!

[wsmorrison]

"This course was done in 1916 . I think that may have been before the Haskell ball. ?"

I could set up a cottage industry correcting you.  Coburn Haskell (of The Country Club in Pepper Pike, OH) invented the Haskell ball in 1898 and it started to become popularized in 1901.  The Haskell ball was well in play by the time the course you are referring to started play.

[mike_malone]

 That's why I put the ? in my comment. I was trying to be nice to the designers. I guess they should have used more space between the fairways.

[Jay Flemma]

Hiya Mayday!

How about 1 at Bulls bay and 4 at Hawktree?  Great use of specimen trees there!