While You Were Away

While you were away from the club, we mainly focused on trees. Some were taken down, some pruned and all were appraised.

Let's start with the removed trees. Most of the trees to come out were from the pesticide application that went wrong all the way back in 2011. Some of the trees were a sore sight for a few years and thankfully have been removed. The two main areas on the property affected by that chemical were two large cottonwoods at the parking lot and a number of trees on the right side of #2. 

There were a few others around the property that needed to come down due to that application, but had little impact to the golf course. Above all, I am happy to finally close that book. Now let's move on.

A few other trees were removed due to safety issues. None of them really had much of an impact on the golf course or playing the round. But these trees were showing pretty clear signs of damage and were very old. There was significant dead plant material in those trees and are now those locations are providing sunlight for other young trees to prosper.

Another area of the course that I pay very close attention to in regards to trees is the wall along #13. Last season we dealt with a few minor issues with the wall. We had the items corrected under warranty, but moving forward we will carefully watch the impact of trees near the wall. Roots system can encroach the wall and create some real issues.

Prior to the wall, many trees were planted on the right side of 13, to act as a barrier not only to Quincy, but to shield Denver Water (visual) as well. Unfortunately, both the trees and wall don't mix well. A couple of older trees were removed last week. Careful inventory and planning may require further removal and/or pruning, but we continue to maintain the integrity of the wall.

Finally, I spoke of appraisal of all of the trees. Inventories have been taken in the past, but no such appraisal of trees on the property has been done. We physically touched every tree on the property over the past two weeks. We learned size, age, classification, species and over all health of the tree. Some deciduous trees were troublesome to evaluate due to the lack of leaves, yet many details can still be found from the bark, buds and tree structure.

It was a great learning experience for the entire staff to properly identify trees. A Pinehurst Tree Management Guide is currently in the works. Our goal with this guide is to provide a long-term plan to maintain the vitality, playability, safety and aesthetics of the property for years to come.