Last night, I spent a good bit of time on the Donald Ross Society website, researching a few things. I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't done so. Below are some paragraphs from a few articles that I cut and pasted because they pertain to HCC in different ways. The first few paragraphs discuss Oakmont CC and the tree program that took place there. I've talked about this several times: As an intern, I was part of phase 1- the midnight tree crew. The other paragraphs discuss golf, trees in addition to Donald Ross and his thoughts on golf and trees. Of course, Oakmont is an extreme example of tree management; the poor squirrel of a logo has no place to live any longer because there are no trees. However, tree management is a major issue on every golf course. At HCC, some of our trees are very valuable and strategic. On #10, imagine the island without the large hemlocks on the right that prevent the golfer from cutting the corner. It ultimately brings the creek into play off the tee. Next, look at #7. The hole is difficult, no doubt. It plays as a double dogleg of sorts. The trees on the left block out shots that land on the left side of the fairway. Is that fair? That's the question that should be left to the architects. All too often we see a big tree on the golf course and it suddenly becomes sacred. Or, it blocks the view of a house so it has to stay. It really comes down to the priority. Is it the golf course, a tree farm or a mixture of both? As Ross often said himself, trees are beautiful but shouldn't impact the condition or the playability of a golf course. As a Superintendent, I know the value of sunlight and the potential of great golf greens and it is always troubling when we value a tree more than the golf green, the real reason we are here. There is always some form of landscaping that can be installed to re-vegetate an area where trees were removed. However, like any change, it is met with resistance. Furthermore, the idea that all golf holes should be "separated" from one another is also far fetched. Golf courses weren't built like that in the early 1900's. It wasn't economical nor was it easy to walk. Enjoy the following: The red words are statements that, in my opinion, relate to Highlands CC.
Mark Studer couldn't drop the trees any faster at historic Oakmont Country Club. While members were home asleep, a small squadron convened regularly before dawn armed with high-powered spotlights and a battalion of twenty-inch chainsaws. Chippers, stump grinders, vacuums, and fresh sod were all brought along to tidy up the mess. As they cut deeper through the impinging hardwoods, the green chairman rediscovered the innate beauty and hidden ground features of Henry Fownes' 1903 masterpiece long before the membership noticed any transgressions.
As a critical part of their long-range restoration plan, Oakmont - site of the 2007 United States Open and home of 13 USGA national championships - removed over 4,500 trees leaving only a handful of specimens standing.
"If Fownes returned today, his comment might be - what's all the fuss, it looks like it did when I was last here," says Studer. "Through old, black-and-white photographs, we simply acted as the custodians and caretakers of his legacy, an agenda our membership would never have supported at the outset."
Today, Oakmont serves as a bastion of tradition for all clubs attempting to reclaim their architectural heritage. Dozens of America's most treasured venues, including Winged Foot, Shinnecock, Olympic, and Baltusrol, have followed suit, clearing away decades of tree plantings and overgrowth. Even North Carolina's most distinguished Donald Ross designs point toward Oakmont for inspiration as they embark upon judicious tree management plans.
Bradley Klein, a prominent golf course therapist, contends that a tree's capacity to screen is best suited for the perimeter of the premises to partition the course from outside structures and distracting noise. Klein, also the author of the award-winning biography, Discovering Donald Ross, acknowledges that there are proper places for trees in golf. "Trees are fine if they don't shade or compete with crucial turf areas, or if they don't lead to vertical walls that turn golf holes into one-dimensional bowling lanes. Ultimately, trees should complement the dominant function of the site, which is to enable golf to take place", says Klein.
Golf architect, Richard Mandell, who has been commissioned to revive the Donald Ross flavor at Raleigh Country Club, plans to move a few hundred ill-advised plantings just off the sides of fairways. "Most of the tree work here will involve thinning out the edges," says Mandell.
Kris Spence, a Ross restoration specialist from nearby Greensboro, couldn't agree more. "Tree removal helps re-establish preferred lines of play along the outer perimeter of golf holes, says Spence, who has reinstated broader fairway widths at Roaring Gap, Mimosa Hills in Morganton, Grove Park in Asheville, and Gaston Country Club in Gastonia.
"But because memberships are more concerned with course conditioning than with strategic shot values, it's always smart politics to approach tree removal with the emphasis on growing healthy turf," says Spence. "You don't need to go any further than your own backyard to see how grass suffers near trees. Their canopies and foliage screen air circulation and conceal essential morning sunlight. Plus, trees are dominant plants to grass, and when competing for nutrients and water, trees will invariably win".Last summer, when Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines re-grassed their fairways with an innovative turfgrass, called TifSport Bermuda, golf course architect, John Fought, also removed several hundred towering pines. Even if the best grasses in the world were planted, it would still be hard to grow anything without sunlight and air, according to club president, Kelly Miller.
After all, shade and damp areas do go hand in hand. Without six hours of unfettered sunlight each day, critical turf areas cannot properly dry. Moist turf attracts diseases, which must be chemically treated with herbicides and fungicides. Too often, a chainsaw is the better remedy.
During the winter, trees also block precious sunlight, which prolongs ice coverage and delays thawing. The end result is winterkill. Evergreens are too often the culprits, as they don't lose their dense leaf material that shields the low-lying winter sun.
