anybody else not like tree lined fairways

Hell yeah open courses FTW I much prefer playing the links up in Scotland than I do playing the little woodland courses down in england (yes i didn't use a capital for a reason) (it sucks down here thanks t the lack of quality open style courses but i'm stuck with it)

I feel much more comfortable as i dont feel the need to try and guide my shots down the FW therefore i hit less errant shots and enjoy a better game plus the smell of the sea air is much nicer than the smell of damp ferns

as far as design goes, I prefer for each hole to be framed and separate from other holes on the course - so that the only hole you can see is the hole you are playing. I've played 1 course like this and loved it. It wasn't necessarily tree lined narrow everywhere, but it was outlined by a lot of trees and brush.

The trees help to keep my ball closer to the fairway.

I prefer trees on a golf course. I can punch it out with the best of them.

i think the reason I dont like trees (beside just personal visual preference) is you have no idea how the ball will play. will it ricochet back into the fairway? will it kick 30 yards out of bounds? will it get stuck behind the trunk? with other types of danger/hazards you generally know what you'll get.

Love tree lined fairways and courses with a lot of trees.

I don't know man.....there's some absolutely stunning golf courses up in Tahoe.

Trees are fine but I agree that change is good.

What I don't like is when trees lining holes overhang the cut of the fairway. Not just one, that may be at a key point, to protect a green or dogleg, but overgrown trees or fairway lines that changed from the original design.

If you like hazard lined fairways, come down to Florida. Lateral hazards, swamps, ponds, and condos.

My home course is loaded with trees, so whether I like them or not, I have to deal. And, I've also nearly mastered a good punch out shot.

Honestly, the courses locally ALL seem to have a considerable amount of trees.

I've not attempted Purgatory in Northern Indiana yet, don't want to waste 2 dozen balls on that course.

I can honestly say there arent many golf holes in this world I dont like, any time I am on a golf course I realize I am happy to be there and am glad I am not working. That being said I like courses that fit the landscape around them, I play a great course that has a front nine that is open and linksy looking, with tall prairie grass lining the fairways, it was built in an old hay field or cow pasture, the back nine rolls into wooded hilly rocky landscape that has trees, cliffs, elevation changes and looks totally different. I love both nines, they just found a nice peice of property that had both types of landscape and routed some very nice holes through it.

The best example in the world is Spyglass HIll, the first four or five holes are seaside links the rest of the course rolls thorugh the forest, every single hole is stunning.

local course just opened last year, and it's pretty much wide open right now. they planted some trees, but the fairways will never be lined with trees. i don't mind open, and also don't mind tree lined fairways. like a previous poster mentioned, as long as i'm golfing i'm happy:)

I prefer parkland courses than links style....

I love playing courses with big trees lining the fairways. The sound of contact is magnified and sounds really cool!

I prefer more open layouts. I don't mind trees, but find that they are often overused. It seems to be a common effect where careless overplanting long ago has resulted in crowding now that the trees have matured. I'm not fond of when trees are repetitively used to define the line of play. I especially dislike the claustrophobic nature of "bowling alley" style tree-line fairways that take away any options and dictate a single type of shot.

Big mature trees are fine, so are tall pines with open areas beneath them. So is water and sand and high grass. What I can't stand are so many courses, in the south for sure, where they just basically cut the course from an overgrown forest with tons of underbrush, and are too cheap to do much beyond the fairway and light rough. You hit the ball anywhere into the tree line and it is totally lost.

The other thing that happens a lot, mentioned above, are courses that are maybe 30 years old, and nothing has ever been done about trees and branches in all that time. Lots of times, these are the courses that lose their greens in hot humid summers like we've been having this year, due to lack of air circulation through all that forest.

I play Northeastern Ohio golf on handfuls of old Donald Ross gems lined with huge mature trees, the best! My vote goes to Parkland courses all day...BB

prefer the tree lined as they frame the whole and needed shot for me. Open courses I like but I tend to have a tougher time placing my shots where I want them. I play a very tree lined heavily forrested course so I guess it is just what I am comfortable with. Dont get me wrong, when in the trees not so much

I dont like trees because in the late summer early fall the leaves COVER the greens and it really sucks having to clear a line or putt through em

My home course from the air…

[attachment=643144:apple air 077.jpg]

Gotta love the trees!

[quote name='Solutions Etcetera' timestamp='1282063508' post='2644900']
My home course from the air…

[attachment=643144:apple air 077.jpg]

Gotta love the trees!
[/quote]


Apple Mountain?
I was thinking about playing there last weekend but didn't get a chance. How are the conditions in the summer up there?

My only complaint with trees on the course, is when they are not properly maintained and a tree which used to nicely line the fairway now blocks good fairway drives or the approach to the green from the fairway. However I appreciate both styles and prefer a course that fits the landscape as another member had posted.

[quote name='pappaf2' timestamp='1282066669' post='2645045']Apple Mountain?
I was thinking about playing there last weekend but didn't get a chance. How are the conditions in the summer up there?
[/quote]
I played last Thursday and they were quite good. They had a bit of trouble with a couple of greens (11 and 15) and 15 was top dressed on 8/5, but had no complaints about how the ball was rolling. You can see a couple of videos of these greens below:

[url="http://applemountaingolfresort.com/timelyContent/%2315%208.12.2010.MOV"]#15[/url]

[url="http://applemountaingolfresort.com/timelyContent/11%20long%20putt.MOV"]#11[/url]

[quote name='Big Ben' timestamp='1282004285' post='2643289']
I play Northeastern Ohio golf on handfuls of old Donald Ross gems lined with huge mature trees, the best! My vote goes to Parkland courses all day...BB
[/quote]

Safe to say, those huge mature trees were not there when Ross laid out the course. Generally speaking, "golden age" architects did not build courses on heavily treed sites or plant trees excessively as part of their designs. The main reason is there was a general belief in finding ground considered appropriate for golf which in those days was terrain that was open and rolling and more resembling the traditional (treeless) landscapes of Scotland. Additionally, with the construction equipment available in the day, it would have been very cost prohibitive to clear a forested site and remove all the stumps.

What happened was that somewhere along the line, subsequent generations of club members thought it a good idea to plant trees lining the fairways such that 60 years later we have a lot of courses with tree-lined fairways. It is a feature that most of our generation find to be traditional, but really it is for the most part, an ill conceived after thought.

I not saying there should never be trees on a golf course. Surely they have their place and can be a strategic and aesthetic element of a golf hole. Not every place looks like or should look like Scotland. But really, the tree-lined fairway is an idea who's time has passed.

Here is a link to a pretty good series of articles about the subject in which the controversial tree removal and incredible transformation of Oakmont CC in PA is profiled.
[b]
Mission: unpopular; as many of America's best known courses turned from parkland layouts into virtual forests, their basic character changed. Now, led by Oakmont, they're returning to their roots[/b]
Peter McCleery
Golf Digest - Oct 2002

[i]"In the beginning there were no trees on golf courses, "links" land being particularly inhospitable. Many of America's most notable courses also had barren beginnings, but over time trees were planted and the "parkland" concept took hold. Indeed, so deeply rooted are trees with American golf that approximately one in every 10 courses has some kind of leafy reference in its name (all those Oak Trees and Shady Oaks). But as those beloved trees mature and branches spread, they become problems, impacting both playability and turf quality. Courses nationwide are now coming to grips with the emotionally and politically charged realities of tree removal, sometimes on a massive scale. Call it the de-treeing of American golf.[/i]"

[url="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFI/is_10_53/ai_93487360/?tag=content;col1"]- Full Story -[/url]

I tend to like trees on a course, but that is what I grew up playing in Michigan, mixed trees/parkland style.

I moved to New Mexico in 2005 and thought I would not like the desert style course there, but I learned to really like them.

Moved back east to North Carolina in 2008 and got acquainted with trees again. One thing that I think people underestimate with tree lined courses is how much harder they are to judge when the wind is blowing. The trees can block the wind, or block you from feeling it, and they can funnel wind down fairways in ways that don't seem similar from where the general course of the wind is blowing. That was something I felt was easier in New Mexico, we had a lot of wind, but you could feel it and see it in the flag blowing, much less guessing overall on the wind...

I like either design. What I dislike on golf courses are cart paths. There is nothing I hate worse than hitting a semi-errant shot that happens to catch a cart path and ends up either 50 yards over the green or 50 yards deep. Not to mention the damage to the golf ball. I haven't played many, but I love courses that are completely free of cart paths near and adjacent to the playing areas.

I prefer tree lined courses. Open courses with many hazards do not seem tough enough. If you hit a ball in a hazard you just take a drop and a penalty. If you hit the ball in the trees then you must play it out. Makes it a harder game.

I spent a number of years learning how to hit the ball straight... When it comes tree's, or minimal tree's, or really difficult, I could give a whoop. I like being able to stand on the tee and see what's out in front that has to be contended with. What's along side the fairways is immaterial; we're not suppose to go there; that's why it's called "rough".

Prefer to play through the trees - just not in them.