Turf Talk
STEVE GRIESINGER, COURSE SUPERINTENDENT
To Tree, Or Not To Tree Presented by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
Have you ever wondered why golf course superintendents have what seem to be perfectly healthy trees removed at the course you play?
environment and are an integral part of the golf course. Trees filter dust, lower temperatures by creating shade and provide wildlife habitat.
to Kilmer, even God could not grow grass on the golf course if he did not have a proper tree management program.
To the golfer, the biggest hazards on the golf course are bunkers, ponds, creeks and gullies. To the golf course superintendent, the biggest hazards on the golf course can be trees.
But the first responsibility for any superintendent is to provide a highquality playing surface based on the available resources. Unfortunately, trees compete with turf for the basic nutrients needed to flourish – oxygen, water and sunlight. This battle is waged most often near putting greens and tees where trees often form an amphitheater-like setting. As the trees encroach the closely cropped turf on the putting and teeing surfaces, they restrict airflow and sunlight while using up the available nutrients. To compensate, fans will be placed in these areas to aid air circulation, but sometimes that tactic is but a short-term solution. With apologies
Perhaps unlike any sport, golfers have a special affection for their playing surface. Golfers talk about golf courses with a reverence that should be reserved for a temple or shrine. Rare is there such admiration expressed for a tennis court, a soccer field or a basketball court. Because of their affinity for the golf course, golfers often cringe at the prospects of having trees trimmed or removed. After all, the tree could be a memorial to a friend or family member, it may have been planted by school children or its life may parallel that of the golfer. Whatever the reason, tree maintenance is not as easy as pulling the chainsaw cord. The most important part of a tree maintenance
To hear one complain about trees is almost blasphemous. After all, poet Joyce Kilmer wrote that “poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.” It’s not that superintendents dislike trees. To the contrary, one of the primary reasons superintendents choose the profession is because they enjoy working with the environment. In fact, golf course superintendents closely monitor the health of trees because they do enhance the
14 LAKEWOOD OAKS COUNTRY CLUB
