Shady Trees and Sticky Club Politics Page 2

Shady Trees and Sticky Club Politics - Page 2

The Root of the Problem

If areas of turf on your course are lean and brown, likely trees are the root of the problem.
Turfgrasses struggle to coexist near trees. Trees are dominant plants to grass, and when competing for nutrients and water, trees invariably will win. Their canopies and foliage screen air circulation and conceal essential morning sunlight from eastern and southern exposures. So how far to the east and south sides of critical turf areas must we remove?

A company, like Arborcom, can chart the amount of sunlight hours critical turf areas are receiving per day and recommend culprit trees for removal. Other architects, however, use simple guidelines depending on course longitude.

Southern states of our country maintain high sun angles. Thus, a 1/1 ratio in the south may be used whereby 40-foot trees should be removed if they are within 40 feet to the east and south sides of important turf grass areas. Northern states maintain lower sun angles. Thus, a 2/1 ratio in the north may be used whereby 30-foot trees should be removed if they are within 60 feet to the east and south sides of tees and greens.

Golfers also should be wary of elaborate drainage schemes. After all, soggy areas and shade 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. A chainsaw represents an alternative remedy.

During the winter, trees also block precious sunlight, which prevent frozen turf from thawing. The end result is winterkill. Evergreens and conifers are too often the offenders as they do not lose their leaf material and shield the low-lying, winter sun.

When all attempts to grow grass fail, bare areas beneath trees are frequently smothered with costly landscaping materials. Worse yet, mulch and pine bark are routinely shaped into inverted pods around virtually every sapling on the course. When crucial areas of play have been landscaped, the playability of the golf hole is compromised.

Leaving Visual Width and Depth

When assessing the length of an impending shot, your eyes can play tricks on you. How often do you feel that a marked distance does not look the yardage? Oddly enough, much of it depends on the scenery left behind the green. Backdrops of trees, for instance, can be most accommodating.

Initially, trees may direct golfers toward the target by operating as points of visual reference. During pre-shot routines, a golfer's intended ball flight can be visually connected to specific trees beyond the site-line of the pin. Ultimately, these trees aid golfers in establishing their aim and alignment. A framework of trees also gives greens a visual sense of scale and dimension that appear most comforting to the golfer's eye.

Without a background of trees, however, a green can appear much like a basketball hoop without its backboard. Can you imagine? In any sport, it's quite difficult to find your range without definitive objects of reference behind the target. This boundless effect is best achieved in golf when vast expanses of continuous color and space loom beyond the hole.
Whether the panorama consists of an open body of water, a broad span of terrain, or an ambiguous skyline, golfers often lack visual orientation and must trust their sense of depth and distance in the approach shot to the hole. As flagsticks typically appear as part of the distant horizon, even accomplished golfers are inclined to use a stronger club. Consequently, approach shots may carry the green despite all the handy yardage information available.

Higher handicappers normally have a different impression of treeless depth. They tend to approach the boundless target more timidly, and often wind up playing short of the hole. Much like a pitcher would throw to home plate without the security of a backstop, the lack of visual containment behind the green can discourage higher handicappers from playing as aggressively toward the hole. After all, their worst nightmare is knocking it through the zip code.

The visual width of golf holes can expose the frailties of the human eye. For instance, a green typically looks much larger than it really is when the perspective is carved through a narrow corridor of trees. Likewise, a green often appears much smaller than it actually is when positioned in an open breadth of space.

Pat Ruddy, one of Ireland's outstanding architects, explains that these delusions are enhanced when different presentations are offered in a single round. Ruddy says, "give a variety of enclosed settings in trees followed quickly by panoramic vistas over miles of countryside or sea, and the eye will fairly quiver sending the wrong information back to the command post."

Like different light settings, a golfer’s vision can adjust to any one perspective even if it's practically dark. However, if golfers move back and forth between bright and dim settings, they may lose their sense of orientation. Shifting between treed and treeless areas of play has a similar effect on a golfer’s ability to focus on sizes and distances.

Although many trees are not a virtue to a golf course, they have a funny habit of always taking root. Curiously, trees grow larger while their limbs reach wider. As such, trees must always be assessed, trimmed or removed. Because of their negative effects on agronomy and course strategy, combined with their visual impact, aggressive tree management programs have emerged as the most dominant trend in golf course renovation today.

Stumping the Opposition

There are a number of methods for tree removal, but don’t notify or alert the membership. Many club members are tree-huggers. Slip-up and mark a tree for removal with an orange ribbon or a surveyor's flag, and enraged golfers will track you down in protest. An ‘X’ drawn on the tree trunk with red spray paint is much too conspicuous as well. Unless it is an outright specimen, don't bother trimming overgrown trees either. The wound typically leaves an obvious scar to remind all golfers of your exploits.

Begin removing trees on the interior of the course, as opposed to the holes adjacent to the clubhouse, to avoid early detection. The best time to remove trees is when the club is closed or when no one is around. If trees are removed in the middle of winter, no one will notice the next spring. Similarly, if trees are removed in the dead of night with a high power chipper, a tarp, and a sod crew, no one will likely miss the trees the next day.

With tree removal, a discrete and methodical approach builds consensus. Do not send the membership into a state of shock or panic. Prioritize and start removing cautiously. By the time members start noticing tree loss, they are supporting an agenda that they never would have honored at the outset. Typically, members who are emotionally attached to hardwoods are the ones taking credit for their removal once they have mysteriously disappeared.

Superintendents should be prepared to answer membership inquiries. Perhaps they should nickname their chainsaws ‘ice’ or ‘lightning’. As tree loss becomes evident over time, superintendents may honestly report that either ice or lightning destroyed those trees during the last storm.

If tree removal is not urgent, copper nails and toxic chemical applications are fine choices to promote a slow departure. Ordinarily, members don't object to the removal of rotten, brown hardwoods once they have inexplicably perished. Golfers will offer good riddance when these trees become unsightly and present safety concerns.