{"id":291,"date":"2015-03-06T14:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T20:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/?p=291"},"modified":"2015-03-11T07:39:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T13:39:31","slug":"midland-tree-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/?p=291","title":{"rendered":"Midland Tree Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golf Course Trees. They are often a hot topic of debate across the country. Do they belong, where do they belong? Are they fair? Do they add value\/strategy or take away from the original\u00a0Golf Course Architect’s design intent? Are they\u00a0safe? Do they outcompete fine\u00a0turfgrasses from which golf\u00a0shots are played from? Do they block vistas that show off the lay of the land? Are they the right variety? How did they\u00a0get planted in their location? The list of questions is much longer than this and is unique to each golf course.<\/p>\n

I will attempt to explain our Tree Management Plan\u00a0at Midland,\u00a0our Tree\u00a0History, how we make decisions on managing them and\u00a0their role\u00a0in the\u00a0future\u00a0of Midland.<\/p>\n

First, click on the photo below. This is the earliest aerial of Midland Hills, 1927. It’s\u00a0interesting to examine each hole, to\u00a0see if\/how they’ve changed over 88 years. At the time of this picture,\u00a0the golf course was only\u00a06 years old, so\u00a0it’s doubtful that any changes had been made to Seth Raynor’s original design. When the driving range moved from the west side of Highway 280 to its current location and the clubhouse moved from its old location\u00a0where the\u00a04th Tee box is now, several holes were changed, but for the most part, Midland Hills is as it was\u00a0on opening day in\u00a01920.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

From this photo, you can decipher what Seth Raynor’s architectural intentions were\u00a0given prior knowledge of his architectural beliefs and\u00a0study of\u00a0his other designs.\u00a0The first thing to notice is the width of the fairways, and specifically the landing areas. Classic golf course architects wanted players to have many different angles to play each hole. This created endless variety and challenged players\u00a0to hit\u00a0shots into greens from multiple angles, testing their ability to work the golf ball from both sides. The intent was to\u00a0allow the golfer\u00a0to advance the ball to the hole\u00a0while being\u00a0challenged by the design of the green and the deep bunkers guarding them. Take into account weather and turf conditions, and you were presented golf course conditions that played differently day to day.<\/p>\n

What’s missing from this photo? Trees. Midland Hills was built on old farm land, a common\u00a0theme in the Classic Golf Course era. You can see where Raynor specifically left trees in key locations. These key locations were a theme with his other original designs. If you look at the map, think about where you hit the ball off line and into the rough. More than likely, there is only 1 or 2 trees on an entire hole and that very likely is where your ball lands today. Some holes were designed to have no trees but the trees that were left were to create strategy and ball placement management for the player.<\/p>\n

Seth Raynor along with other Classic Golf Course Architects like Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, George C.\u00a0Thomas, William Flynn, A.W. Tillinghast, etc.\u00a0viewed trees as having a place on a golf course but only in very select areas. They left native trees to highlight land forms which didn’t block views of the vistas golf courses offered but highlighted their natural flowing land characteristics. When Seth Raynor first visited Midland’s property he named it “one of the best flowing properties he’d ever seen for a golf course.” I imagine the main reason Midland Hills received it’s name because of it’s flowing hills. Midland is very fortunate in having it’s best assest be it’s piece of property it sits upon, not many golf courses can claim that. Some courses\u00a0have more strategic designs, some have an abundance of pretty white sand bunkers but few have the quality of land that can match Midland. It truly is a “Hidden Gem” and Seth Raynor squeezed the most out of it when designing it as he was a great engineer and artist.<\/p>\n

How does this tie into our Tree Management Plan? First of all, its of most importance to realize that Midland was\u00a0an inland-links golf course when designed.\u00a0It’s a big question if we would ever again look like the photo above because American golf has\u00a0shifted it’s importance of trees on golf courses, much different than the original intent of the Architecture. Some “Top 100 Clubs” have gone through complete restorations which involved removal of 1000’s of trees all at once to get back to the “Day 1” look but at Midland we have taken a different approach.<\/p>\n

So how did we go from the photo above to where we are today? In the 1950’s, America went through\u00a0the “Beautification Movement” stage in which it became very popular to plant trees. Trees in your neighborhood, parks and yes golf courses. This is what some people call\u00a0the largest demise in Classic Golf Course Architecture. Trees were cheap, plentiful and planted by the 1000’s. Unfortunately, Midland disregarded their appreciation for having a Classic Golf Course designed by one of the greatest Architects of all time and bought into the idea of mass plantings to “fill voids” around Greens, Tees and in between Fairways. The letter below is from 1951 which shows where Midland changed their future of the look and feel of the golf course.<\/p>\n

\"1951<\/a><\/p>\n

Now I apologize if you were on this Committee in 1951 but unfortunately this is where Midland made some major mistakes in it’s planning. Unfortunately, the biggest mistake was that there was no plan. No plan for variety\/native origin\u00a0of tree, location of planting, overall diversity, proximity to fine turfgrass areas, future shading issues, canopy height diversity, root competition for nutrients and water, strategy changes to playability, or regards to how it would change the look as to what Seth Raynor designed 30 years prior. Members were able to buy trees and were even given the opportunity to plant them where they desired. There is no doubt that the Midland Tree Committee had nothing but the best intentions but unfortunately the importance of what was designed by a Professional Architect was disregarded and sadly lost over time as these trees matured. Lost in an\u00a0unorganized and over-done planting of every hole with\u00a0several non-native species of trees. The “tunnel effect” of having every hole lined with trees was a very popular theme to accomplish to create a false sense of privacy.<\/p>\n

Over time the trees encroached the Greens, Tees, Fairways and even\u00a0Bunkers. The contours of the Fairways shrunk as the canopy matured and encroached, the Fairway mowers had to move inward as the trees grew wider. The quality of the turf on Greens started to suffer with root competition and increased shade. Divot recovery on Tees became almost non-existent. The rough became incredibly inconsistent and sparse often with tree roots exposed. Winter kill became more prevalent as the quality of turf declined. The vistas of Midland Hills disappeared as the trees engulfed each hole. It became evident to Midland Hills\u00a0in the\u00a0early 2000’s that something had to change.<\/p>\n

Tree removals took place throughout the 2000’s around Greens and Tees as the main goal being improved turf quality. The impact was immediately\u00a0noticeable.\u00a0In 2008, a professional aroborist company, StrataPoint Inc. was hired and instituted a Strategic Management Plan for Midland’s tree inventory and was put into place\u00a0in 2009. This Plan\u00a0along with appreciating the\u00a0study of\u00a0Classic Golf Course Architecture gives us\u00a0direction for today and into the future.<\/p>\n

\"StrataPoint<\/a><\/p>\n

Every tree on the inside of the property was inventoried, rated on\u00a0several accounts\u00a0and an action plan was created as it related to the intended architecture of each hole. The Greens Committee has since\u00a0used this 225 page extensive manual as a guideline to manage our Tree Inventory. This plan gives clear direction and takes into account current aspects as well as managing the tree inventory for the next generations of\u00a0members at Midland. The approach Midland has taken in managing trees has been fairly gradual, each Fall the Greens Committee meets and discusses where to prioritize removals and plantings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our current Tree Plan is based the following aspects:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Health\/Safety<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Playability<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Seth Raynor’s Architectural Intentions<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Diversity-Species and Canopy Height<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Native Species Stand of Trees<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Short\/Long-Term Goals<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n