I’ve thought about issues of the presence of trees and tree removal quite a bit during the course of golf travel this year, during trips to various parts of the country and while playing near where I live in Western Washington, not far from Seattle. I’ve traveled to Pinehurst in the spring, Sand Valley and Wisconsin in early summer, done multiple trips to San Diego, played a few courses like Gold Mountain Olympic and Port Ludlow near where I live, visited Minnesota and Iowa for the Midwest Mashie, and then did a two week road trip in Eastern Washington, Bend, and Bandon Dunes. I also did a short trip in August and played both Pumpkin Ridge Courses near Portland.
One thing to remember is that, in different regions, there is different terrain and different native vegetation. The original course design takes into account the features of the site, such as terrain, native vegetation, and other off site elements, like mountains, rivers, lakes, or an ocean. Eastern Washington courses may be in areas where there are limited trees in prairie type land or high desert. The Bend area in Oregon is not at all like Portland or Bandon Dunes and the terrain and forestation at Bandon Trails is different from the other courses there. The Pinehurst area seems to have found a balance between the pines that are everywhere and quality golf courses. I played Southern Pines in early April and saw the renovation work being done there, including massive tree removal. Besides the benefits of more light and ventilation, the tree removal seemed to open up better view corridors that exposed more areas of the course from other playing areas.
Most of the courses were modern and the work of many different designers. Generally speaking, the more heavily treed courses like Gold Mountain Olympic had adequate width. I’d say the same about the Pumpkin Ridge courses. I’d have a hard time thinking how large scale tree removal on these courses could improve aesthetics, much in the same way that tree planting at Wine Valley or Gamble Sands would at best be aesthetically neutral but most likely unattractive. Cedar Rapids Country Club had a tree removal program and a storm that removed a lot more trees, but trees did not contribute to a feeling of claustrophobia. The Harvester had fewer trees and an open feel. The same is true of the two Sand Valley courses I played, with trees occasionally being a factor on some holes. The trees at Windsong Farms were mostly on the perimeter of the course or in areas on the course where they did not interfere that much with play.
Living on forested property, I can speak to a few facts about trees:
1. They grow, some fairly quickly and some with a lot of width and massive canopies as they mature.
2. They get diseases and they die.
3. As the disease process continues or in the presence of severe weather, they become hazardous and can come down.
4. The cost of dropping a large tree is about one third (or less) of the cost of the cleanup, so cleanup is the big ticket item.
5. Some trees can contribute in ways to a forest eco-system and are not attractive. I leave certain types of trees alone in some places and happily remove them in others. I have a process I have tried to follow if I am thinning out an area.
6. You can’t stand a tree back up after you take it down.
I’ve happily played courses all over the world and many had virtually no trees. I’ve also played lots of heavily forested courses and would return again. The course closest to my home was built in the 1970s in a second growth forest of mostly fir, cedar, and hemlock. Over the past 20 years, lots of perimeter trees were removed and occasionally large stately firs came down to bring light into more areas, like greens. The change in height and width of many trees over more than 40 years suggests the need for ongoing limbing and other shaping to limit their intrusion into how a hole plays.
I played Capilano in Vancouver about four years ago. The course is built on the side of a mountain in an area that was logged in the early 1900s. Fir, cedar, and hemlock trees grew back and are dense in some areas, with large numbers being 100 to 150 feet tall. Given the massive size and height of many trees, the height tends to distort the actual width of the fairways. I played with a member who had a career in forestry and the lumber industry. He described a fairly intelligent approach to thinning to remove less healthy trees surrounded by older, more stately trees, removing hazardous trees, and removing individual trees and clusters of trees which limited air circulation and light in areas where more ventilation and light was needed. Like so much of how things are done in Canada, what they were doing made sense.
Charles Lund