Do Trees make a Golf Course Safer or More Dangerous?

[Duncan Cheslett]

Last week I nearly killed our Head Greenkeeper.

Too late finishing work to play in the Wednesday competition, I nipped out to play five holes in the fading light. I was clearly the only player on this area of the course. I pulled my approach shot to the first green over the trees blocking the view of the second tee. Only as I was walkng towards my ball did Nick emerge from behind the trees. He'd been checking something on the tee.

" You didn't see me, did you? "

" No, sorry about that! "

" It's okay, I didn't see you either!"

This is the shot I was playing - it is the approach required of the majority of players. The trees can just be seen to the extreme left on the photo. The second tee is immediately adjacent to the bunker.

 

As it happens, these particular trees are due to be felled this winter. This has caused a lot of controversy within the club. Certain members maintain that the trees offer protection to golfers on the second tee, while others believe just as fiercely that the interests of safety are best served by restoring clear lines of sight so that everyone is aware of the presence of other golfers.

I am sure that much the same argument takes place at golf clubs around the world. So in general which is safer, a protective band of trees, or clear lines of sight?

[Wayne_Freedman]

A golfer on the second tee should have the luxury of concentrating on his next shot instead of worrying about another player's errant one. How will this be best accomplished?


Is there a history of felled players on that tee?

[Sean_A]

I am firmly in the camp of allowing me to see the danger points rather than shroud them in trees.  I trust myself to protect myself far more than I do trees.


Ciao

[Carl Rogers]

I presume that a fence or screen would be an unacceptable blight? ... though very safe.

[Brad Klein]

Two points.


1-the argument for planting trees to provide a safety barrier and, by corollary, for keeping them there to maintain safety, is rarely in my experience based upon empirical experience; nor for that matter based on sustained observation. At clubs with caddies I've often asked about the need for such trees and it's amazing how often they'll say something like "I've never seen anyone hit there." Granted, there are times when it's needed, but my sense is the need to plant and to keep comes much more from supposition than from evidence.


2-Visual perception is a reliable and enduring guide. It certainly works on British links courses. As for safety barriers, a tree also creates the opportunity for a blind, random ricochet, which brings its own dangers with it.

[Joe Sponcia]

Duncan,


I would be in the more dangerous camp.


I was told this planting 'hides the cart path' so it cannot be removed.  From the back tees, you can't see anyone, I walked up to the white tees and shot this picture (20 yards) and still couldn't see anyone.





Walked another 30 yards or so forward and right...and finally I could see the group was waiting on another to clear the green. 





Not only is this type of thing common and dangerous...it wastes a ton of time especially for walkers.

[Ian Andrew]

I work at quite a few Stanley Thompson courses where the massive trees between make the holes much safer than they would be without, but that's not always the case.

The worst safety issue I ever faced was at Peterborough G&CC where the 17th, a par five, plays over/around the 16th tee. The monster Maple on the corner makes this a great dilemma. The two tees are both elevated and each one is clearly in range from the other tee. The 16th happens to be over 200 yards playing from ridge to ridge.

The club had planted a forest of trees in between to try and get play down the corridor and knock down wayward tee shots, but all it meant was no warning for any ball straying towards either tee. In the end we removed every tree, but the key Maple at the corner leaving the players to clearly see and hear each other.

Most use the visibility to wait and watch play. What it did do is make the risk much clearer for the players involved. It's by far from an ideal situation, but it is safer without trees than with.


The situation is here (I can't post this for some reason) : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1009140999132741&set=a.362393703807477.85233.100001105529083&type=3&theater


I struggle with this platform

[Mark_Fine]

Trees can do both which is why every course should have a thorough tree management plan prepared with the help of an architect and an arborist/tree specialist. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

The situation in question sounds as much as a daylight problem as a tree problem.....

As answered, obviously, it can be both.  Overall, they probably help most situations, but can hurt on a few.

Many old courses really have a hole spacing problem.  More space always helps, more trees may not, at least for several decades.  Average players still hit the ball to an apex of about 90 feet, and most trees don't get that high.  Obviously, its lower when off line and not flush, so maybe 50-70 foot trees, before or after the apex help a lot.

Others have a "Zone of play" problem, whereby tees or greens are within 17 degrees of a hook side line of play, or 23 degrees on the slice side.  Typically, I only worry about high concentration areas like that.  The odds of someone passing in a ball flight in a larger fw where golfers are scattered go way down.  That said, I recall Ted Robinson saying that he always staggered parallel primary landing zones beyond the driving distance of the other, which I try to do, but it is sometimes impossible with parallel holes.

As to vision, my mentors always routed side by side holes in opposite directions so players could see what was coming at them. Other architects would occasionally route them the same direction, a la Inverness 1 and 10, which they never did, even if it would look cool and make a better hole, in the name of safety.

[David_Tepper]

I played for many years at the Presidio GC in San Francisco, a very tight course with 7 or 8 parallel holes running in opposite directions to each other. While many of the trees separating the holes should have be thinned and pruned regularly over the years. I cannot imagine playing the course without those trees. The place would be an absolute shooting gallery.

That being said, I did get hit once in the chest by a ball from an opposite tee while walking in the tree line. There was no way the  guys on the tee could have seen me. But I am sure those trees prevent way more accidents than they allow to happen.

[Thomas Dai]

Would the 1st and 18th at TOC be safer with a line of conifers down the middle?
atb

[Adrian_Stiff]

As a general rule they help but it depends on each situation and sometimes it is still better to maintain the visibility. Every situation needs its own assessment.

[David_Tepper]

"Would the 1st and 18th at TOC be safer with a line of conifers down the middle?"

Thomas D. -

Remind me, what is the custom on the 1st and 18th tees at TOC? Are people allowed to tee off on #1 if people are walking up the 18th fairway and vice-versa? Is there any attempt to control play by either the starter or the caddies?

My recollection from reading Oliver Horovitz's book on caddying at TOC is that the caddies do get hit by golf balls from other fairways from time to time.

DT

[Steve Lang]

   When we played TOC the caddies took some delight in yelling down some folks coming up the 18th as we went down the 1st.. they said outgoing had privilege..


that said, isn't the 1st+18th at TOC the widest effective fairway in golf?

[Garland Bayley]

I believe that without trees my home course would be very dangerous. After all, it is 18 holes, clubhouse, and driving range on 91 acres. The trees slow down and deflect incoming shots. A person standing out in the open has no such defense. The standard for behavior at my course is that if you hit it towards the trees you yell fore, because you don't know what is in the trees or behind them.


I have never heard of people being seriously hurt at my course when shielded by trees. However, I do know of one person being seriously hurt when hit in an unshielded position.

[mike_malone]

If parallel holes have blind areas then trees can help.
There are trees between numbers one and two at Rolling Green. Tee shots from number one can head down number two fairway which drops off significantly.
Thankfully they realized this very soon after the course was built and added some beautiful hardwoods between the holes which work well.
Hundreds of evergreens which needlessly created blindness have been removed.
So study is required.

[mike_beene]

In a similar situation we have one big tree that I hide behind when players are on the preceding tee( which is a 220ish par 3 that sometimes people snap hook from).My eyes are no longer good enough to see a ball coming at me so I need a barrier of some sort.

[Wayne_Freedman]

Will say this.
A golf ball can do serious damage.
Watched a guy get plunked three weeks ago.
He was walking well left of a green after putting out.
The following player hooked an approach from 210 or so and nailed the guy on the head.
Yelling, "Fore," made no difference.
That ball bounced 20 yards off the guy's head and he dropped to the ground as if he had been shot.
Blood everywhere.


They took him away in an ambulance.
Don't know what happened to him after that, but it was scary.


So...whatever is safer, period.

[Kalen Braley]

I would agree as Mark F has suggested...it depends.

If it obscures a view to a landing area where others may or may not be...probably not.

If its a scenario like Pasa 6/7/8.  I would think it makes that corridor much safer...

[Jeff_Brauer]

What's the old saying?  Trees are 90% air but they block 90% of shots that hit them.....

[BCowan]

If parallel holes have blind areas then trees can help.
There are trees between numbers one and two at Rolling Green. Tee shots from number one can head down number two fairway which drops off significantly.
Thankfully they realized this very soon after the course was built and added some beautiful hardwoods between the holes which work well.
Hundreds of evergreens which needlessly created blindness have been removed.
So study is required.

Mayday,

  Most excellent post, the reason u cited was the main reason I got hit by a golf ball the first of 3 times.

[Kalen Braley]

What's the old saying?  Trees are 90% air but they block 90% of shots that hit them.....

Jeff,

I actually believe that to be true for the most part.  But for most trees the leaves and branches are spread about in random fashion, so no matter which line you attempt to take thru it, there is almost always something in the way.

P.S.  A screen at a driving range is mostly air too, but 99.999% of golf balls that hit it won't be getting thru it.

[Thomas Dai]

If a physical barrier is needed what are the options other than trees (or thickets of shrubbery)?


For example, I've seen fine mesh nets hung up and wooden frames with rabbit wire, sometimes with evergreen creepers or the like growing up them. I've seen thick 'glass' used as well.


What would be other alternatives?


Atb

[Doug Siebert]

What's the old saying?  Trees are 90% air but they block 90% of shots that hit them.....

Jeff,

I actually believe that to be true for the most part.  But for most trees the leaves and branches are spread about in random fashion, so no matter which line you attempt to take thru it, there is almost always something in the way.

P.S.  A screen at a driving range is mostly air too, but 99.999% of golf balls that hit it won't be getting thru it.

If trees block 90% of the shots that hit them, they allow 10% through. That's not a very effective safety barrier! Better to let people see when someone is on the tee, and if they are still in danger because too many errant shots find their way over there then you have to suck it up and put up a screen of some sort. If you find the screen unsightly THEN you can hide the screen with trees, secure in the knowledge that what the trees don't catch, the screen surely will.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Doug,

An old saying is probably not a good judge of safety.  I have no idea what percent of shots varying tree species might actually stop, but air is 100% air, and stops none of them.........

I sometimes wonder if actually seeing the other shot helps.  I mean, I know it does, but always wonder if you can judge where the ball is flying, if it is dropping, curving, etc.  Picture yourself trying to shag a fly ball for the first time in a long time.   Judging a flying ball coming down is not easy if you don't do it every day, and you usually end up not where you want to be.

I got hit by a ball as a youth.  When the marshal came by to ask where I got hit, I responded "over on the sixth fairway" but what he meant was what body part......goes to show even my youthful mind was more focused on the golf course.