Will The Cal Club And Doug Nickels Take A Bow!!!

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Its not often I get a chance to get really excited about restorations and rejuvenations that are going on in California, and I have to say that Doug Nickels and The Cal Club should be saluted for this unbelievable effort! Talk about a before and after!

I played Cal Club of San Francisco (Bill V's former home course) way back in 1998, and it was just a great course that was in the midst of some realy positive things happening at the time. It had been torn around by that damn freeway that also got SFGC and Lake Merced, but it still shines.

Congratulations to the Cal Club for handing over the keys of the car to someone that can properly drive it home!


The Cal Club Forest @ Hole #8--circa February 1995

A finished product that Vern Macan would love--And the Good Doctor!  circa August 2000

[Mike_Cirba]

That's what it's all about.

Those two pictures should be sent to every single club in the world considering a "restoration".  No other words need to be said.

BRAVISSIMO, Emperor!

[Richard_Goodale]

Why shouldn't they have taken out ALL of the trees?

This is a serious question.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Anyone who has driven south on highway 280 has seen the evolution of the course, with many of the trees on the uphill hole on the front nine (is it 5 or so?) removed.  Bravo!

[Jeremy Glenn. (Guest)]

I second Mike's motion.

Wow!!

[JohnV]

Rich,

...cutting away of many worthless and less esteemed trees brings forth to view many good ones, which for years have been hidden away in a rowdy growth, unseen and un appreciated. - A.W. Tillinghast

If you look at the second picture your eye picks out the nicer trees that were left.  The other trees could have been replaced by one of the sound walls they put alongside the freeway for all they added.

Also, having single trees out there make it easier to pick out a target from the tee, provide options for recovery and make the fairway bunker that was retained a more interesting hazard.

Plus, I enjoy looking through the course at other holes, not just seeing one corridor of fairway at a time.

Just one man's opinion.

[Richard_Goodale]

John

I haven't seen either before or after, but are the trees just there, then or now, for "framing,"  or do they serve a higher strategic purpose from the point of view of playing the holes?

[Tom MacWood (Guest)]

Wow! I used to live up Westborough from the course. I understand that Olympic has removed quite a few trees, this makes me wonder what it would look like if it took similar drastic measures.

[Peter Galea]

Kudos to Doug, a fine gentleman and very talented architect. Doug's bunker work is second to none. He truly "gets it." A tip of the hat to Roger Robarge, Cal's superintendent too.

[Brian Phillips]

Tommy,

I hope this is a course we can visit next Autumn..

Absolutely brilliant pictures.  If ever two pictures could convince owners that have fallen in love with their trees this is it.

Cheers Brian.

[Gib_Papazian]

Doug,
Remember when you told me you wondered if anyone was really taking notice of your work?

Evidently the Emperor is impressed.

Now all you have to do is convince the Burlingame CC gang how good that course could be if they would just give it the care it deserves.

Love the drawings of Sequoyah . . . . . . what could they be thinking about after seeing your work at Cal Club?

[guset]

Nothing like a good El Nino to get the mind a going.  The El Nino in 1981  got this place started on a clean out, you should have seen it then.  There was so godddamn much firewood in the member's parking lot for fireplaces, it probably had an effect on the birthrate for San Mateo County.Then the USGA came in for a consultation.  A second El Nino came along and 800 more went.The good thing about cypress trees is that they don't live so long.  You just wauit and momma nature will take em out for ya, just don't play any more.

I am certain that the course drains better now, too.

On a lighter note, I find it hard to believe that I could even play to an 8 at the CalClub.  No wonder I played soooooooooooo much better away then.  That 1995 picture of #8 is really really scary, but worthy of being pasted on the W.C. door for a tree hugger.  Does the NoCal John Muir society know about this travesty that has occurred in the last 7 years?  Tommy TAKE THOSE PICTURES DOWN OR THEY"LL HAVE A TREE-IN !  .  It was a little like playing Harbour Town West back then.  


After a good windstorm, the tree line on the left of 8 was a good place to get balls.

Rich, I agree.  You could leave the perimeter tree buffer from the rest of the world in place and leave a couple of hundred photographable trees (There are some cool looking ones-maybe even trademarkable!!!) at the CalClub and it would be visually spectacular (A couple of hundred left would make the place seriously BARE!-I can count at least 25 trunks on the right short and inside the obscured bunker inside the tree line)

(BV)

[Me again]

  You could leave the perimeter tree buffer from the rest of the world in place and leave a couple of hundred photographable trees (There are some cool looking ones-maybe even trademarkable!!!) at the CalClub and it would be visually spectacular.

And raise it 3 Doak points!  The world would have another 10!!!!!

[TEPaul]

Those two shots are really a great case study in before and after restoration work! They should be carried around by anyone interested in making this point as a great example.

I too love the way the interesting topography was opened to view on the left, the shot angles reconsitituted, the bunker brought into play again and I so much agree with JohnV of the visual benefit of opening up the golf view at the end of the hole (of the hole beyond it!!).

Rich:

If yours is a serious question about taking out ALL the trees then I believe you've got a lot to learn my friend! You should understand that there JUST ARE different styles of golf courses, like a parkland style, a linksland style and many other variations in between! All of them maintained properly go to make up a wide variety of architecture all of which can work in it's own way if maintained the way it's supposed to be and the way it was designed to be.

The real point of these two juxtaposed photos show how this particular design should be maintained and how it should not be. The first photo shows a hole whose "shot angles" and "features" like the bunkering has become enclosed by trees and the second one shows all the designed "shot angles" freed up from tree encroachment, not to mention the visuals of "golf views" combined with trees intelligently!

The more I hear it, the less I like this sort of "one thing fits all attitude" and that very much pertains to the use of trees in architecture or the lack of them. For anyone to say that all courses should have ALL trees removed (like you said of this one) because the linksland has no trees (or whatever else the rationale is) is really no more understanding of the spectrum that architecture can be than someone who thinks trees should be planted everywhere!

Hope that doesn't sound rude but I consider it a serious answer to your serious question.

[J. Francis]

Would like to show these pictures to people at my course, wow. Alos, does Olympic have his phone number?.

[Richard_Goodale]

Tom

You weren't being rude, just honest and thinking "inside the box".

Of course there are different styles of golf course, depending on local topography, vegetation, soil characteristics, etc.  Because of these differences, some sites need trees.  Others need lakes.  Some need containment for legal purposes.  Some need all three.  Most older links courses require none of them.

All I was saying is that this site, from the pictures I saw, could do very nicely with many fewer trees than it has even now.  BillV, who was a member there and is a very astute man, seems to agree with me.  Why don't you?  Trying to keep your street cred with the Sierra Club?

[Tim_Weiman]

Tommy N:

About all I can say is ....Wow!  Thanks for posting these!

Rich Goodale:

I played this course about twelve years ago and really enjoyed the place.  Looking at Tommy's first picture, I am amazed how much tree growth there apparently was in such a short period of time.

Would I remove all of the trees?

I probably wouldn't, mostly for style/aethethic reasons.  But, also because of what Paul Daley warned us against, i.e., trying to impose a single style on all golf courses.

This course simply isn't a links and shouldn't try to be, in my opinion.

If diversity is your idea of staying "inside the box", then I can't see much inherent value in thinking "outside the box".  If I go to Dornoch, I don't want to find anything resembling Winged Foot and vica-versa.

That "one style fits all" would undermine the joy of traveling and discovering different courses.

Clearly, the Cal Club let things get out of hand with the trees, but based on this one picture, they seem to have right at the moment.

[JohnH]

Could we be glad they didn't remove all the trees for environmental reasons?  It's a wonderful hole now, with more angles to approach from for sure.

[A_Clay_Man]

Rich- I;m sure you will understand  :-/ :-/ nudge nudge that they didn't remove any trees they just did a little pruneing. Ayuh pete?
I'm glad to hear Roger is still there. When I met him he just inherited the job and wasn't sure if the club would go with him. It was back in 96' and I remeber him saying how there was talk of returning some of the orig. Mackensie.

Tommy, is this one of the holes altered from the 280? What Did they ever do to the front right of the (i think)ninth hole? there was some pond constructed if I remember right? Is it possible they could get the bastardized ones at sfgc to look like this?

[Richard_Goodale]

Tim

I'm not at all arguing for "one style fits all" as even with 0 trees, nobody would ever mistake the hole shown above for a "links."  I'm just asking the hpothetical (which we have debted before) about the architectural value of trees.  My personal feeling is, even on parkland courses, the fewer the better.  Others, of course, can and will disagree.

[corey miller]

Rich- it does not seem that you are arguing for a "one style fits all".  My personal preference on this hole would be the removal of 4-5-6 more trees.  I am sure that 99% of the people on this site prefer the 2nd picture.  The problem for me is that  perhaps only 30% of the members of these clubs feel this way, though this before-after seems like a no-brainer.  With the tree cutting you have to take what you can get, and it helps when you have a green super and well respected archie in your corner.  

[TEPaul]

Rich;

Thinking "inside the box" has nothing at all to do with it! Understanding what a golf course was and is (restoration) supposed to be like is more like it--understanding what kind of style the course is supposed to be and not transfering it to another style.

BillV does seem to agree with you about trees in almost every instance, including Pine Valley, and I disagree with him just as much as I do with you--providing you meant what you originally said ("Why not remove ALL the trees? This is a serious question."). If I knew you meant it hypothetically maybe I wouldn't have responded but I probably should have as on here 'hypothetical or actual' seems to mean about the same thing most of the time!

[JohnV]

Rich, your National Lumberjacks Association membership card must be in the mail.

I misread your original question.  My feeling is that if the course is built in a wooded area, trees are appropriate.  Planting trees in a more barren area would not make sense.

Interestingly there was an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinal today about how many of the trees in San Francisco are reaching their natural lifespan and starting to die.  The city has no funds to replace them.  They were not there originally but some people now think they belong.  I think it would be neat to see Golden Gate Park restored to its natural dunesy look by removing most if not all the trees.

[Gib_Papazian]

J. Francis,

Whadddaya think, we're asleep at the RR switch? Of course we do.

[TEPaul]

The thing about some of these tree huggers is they can be very adamant but not very observant! It took us about 18 months to get our restoration plan approved and this one particular guy was adamant about not taking any trees down.

A big photo of our 1st hole was up in a whole membership meeting to review the master plan and we had removed three very noticeable pines on the left side before the master plan process. So the photo had been up for about ten minutes and I was going over what the master plan called for on that hole and this guy gets up and says he's adamantly opposed to those three pines coming out on the left so I pointed to the spot and said; "Sir those three pines came out about six months ago."

The whole thing got a great laugh and said more about the tree issue than I ever could have!