“Golf vs Trees”

When I read the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer, what immediately comes to mind for me is the thought that Mr. Kilmer probably never played golf!

While I agree that the beauty and majesty of trees is grand – when I am playing golf trees are my enemies.

Let me explain….

Golf course designers like to use trees when creating a track for practical reasons, such as:

• much-needed windbreaks
• shade
• refinement to challenges on the course

Groups of trees, planted irregularly, create some fascinating golf, providing me many opportunities of showing my skills and judgement in slicing, pulling around or attempting to loft the various trees in my line to the green.

But the truth is – no matter how straight I hit the ball during a round, at some point while playing the round, I will hit a tree.

With towering canopies and dangling branches, it seems inevitable and becomes a very intimidating sight when I find my ball in the forest.

And for the record, every time someone says, “Go ahead, go for it…trees are 90 percent air,” I always reply, “Yeah, well so are screen doors, and I’m not hitting through them, either.”

My ball can sniff out the last, thinnest twig on a tree, hit it and ricochet as though it had caught a main branch of a tree full on. Guess if you are born lucky as a golfer (or you are my husband) you’ll find the gap.

I must have been bad in this and any previous lives as I never find a way through.

Trees often make me wonder if I am the unluckiest golfer in the world. The chances of hitting my ball behind the one tree that stands alongside the green if I tried, must be well over 100/1, but somehow I will manage it.

This is also a similar situation to when I somehow hit the one and only branch when playing out of the trees. It is no thicker than my little finger but because I am deadly accurate, I will hit it nine times out of 10.

I have found that golfers are apt to choose up sides when the talk turns to trees. A veritable Mason-Dixon line is drawn, with tree huggers on one side and the so called tree haters on the other.

“Tree Huggers” is an accurate characterization of those that will defend all trees’ rights to exist on the golf course regardless of the trees’ negative impact on golf strategy and agronomics. On the other hand, there are the “Tree Haters”, who think that trees shouldn’t ever interfere with golf strategy and agronomics.

On many courses I see trees squeezing the lines of play, which make the golf courses too challenging for me. When the course is too challenging, pace of play slows down and ultimately my round is less enjoyable.

Courses that provide adequate space between trees and playing corridors, and between the trees themselves, improve playability, which enhance the quality of my round on the course!

I know it sounds like I am not a “Tree Lover”. Honestly, I guess that you could put me somewhere smack in the middle of the tree debate.

Pragmatic tree lover is how I choose to think of myself.

As a child, I owned every record for climbing highest in the trees in my neighborhood, even if no one else realized it was a competition.

Large trees possess a satisfying primordial presence, on golf courses or elsewhere. Strolls over beaches and meadows can be pleasant, but for more soul-searching hikes I seek the solitude of forests and the partnership of trees.

The woods take me in and pass me through, covering me in blinking glimpses of scenery, their air filled with the swish of wind and the scent of new buds, sap and pine.

What is golf, at its best, but a wondrous hike with nature?

Here’s a fun fact – Golf courses account for the largest green spaces in many cities.

Trees and woods are critical to the sustainability of our environment. They capture carbon, help cool urban areas and provide shelter and habitats for wildlife.

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In nature nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.

My Reads from the Reds – Time spent among trees is never time wasted.

Fairways and Greens – We are 18 Holes and Counting!

Written by Kathy Festa