Wow, you really hold the role of golf course superintendent in high esteem.
Not at all, the sarcasm is incorrect; my father was super's mechanic long ago; I played in a super's shop as a youngster, some of the most durable friendships in 41 years of club service I've made are with supers...even supers who are doing this... have never met an honest incompetent...can't say enough good things about their care of the playing grounds, and many many times, their inputs here... It's because of those close relationships, I feel justified in saying this. However, that is not to say there are two or three out and out pricks... who I hope lose their greens in their pompous hubris.
But removals have, and are now going, too far, obliterating trees that have no little or no impact on any legitimate aspect of sunlight windows or turf growth, air flow, playing width or angles, even aesthetic views, etc...and in fact are now making the wholesale decisions on trees that either were extant at founding OR were part of the natural development of a hole's long standing character... as if they re the same as a stand of ill conceived overgrown once-decorative, conifers planted in the 70s by a green site.
I'm not making a charge of corruption or thinking of all supers, just stating that a sizable contingent in my orbit have inured the organizational/careerist trait following the path of least resistance in revolving contract posts (and for the other reasons I listed in previous post). Since most hearts and minds were won on the board and committee level 10-15 years ago, they now have near cart blanche... one of those friend-supers (it felt too stupid to write "super friends") winks at me when I ask about the 20 notable new tear downs in the off season..."storm damage!" and we laugh...ha ha ha.
Joe there was hyperbole...but I'm not pulling your chain, while I still visit for camaraderie, up until 3 years ago, I was/been out there caddying, there's no fucking respite from the sun... almost an absence of visual grace from casting shadows...no trickery of air pockets whistling through a nearby grove... little or no majestic frames. Up until about 2012... I personally think the tree program had met the necessary ends, given the enormous co-programs of drainage and Hanses restoration work. The bottom line is that photo archives reveal that WF had significant stands of trees in its first iteration and almost none of the ones available to be seen in 1920s photos are there anymore. I'd look also at the 1925-26 aerials and measure it up to the most recent one.
And Century is destroyed as an experience comparable to what it was and the reverence its old presentation once commanded. It's still a fine golf course, but its incongruous with its former ken as a singular, treasured, precious experience.
But c'mon, supers own up... you would prefer not green and not plush and you don't want your boards thinking green and plush because it's more work/expectations (expectations you might fall short of) for you, or because you know better...?