Thoughtfully placed trees can add beauty and strategy to a golf course, but the wrong trees in the wrong places can lead to all sorts of problems, especially around putting greens. Closely mown turf struggles in the presence of shade and restricted airflow, leaves and debris interfere with putts, and roots can encroach into the green – to name just a few problems. One of the most interesting examples I’ve seen of the impact trees can have on a putting green was at Fenway Golf Club in Scarsdale, New York. The 1924 A.W. Tillinghast gem has a rich golf history and is set on a stunning piece of property featuring a significant number of mature specimen trees that are mostly well positioned, except for several black locust trees around the sixth green.
The mature locust trees were just 15 feet from the green and hindered the maintenance team’s ability to deliver the same high-quality putting surface there that golfers enjoyed on the other greens. In 2022, one year ahead of co-hosting the 42nd U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, the trees were removed to address turf health and playability issues. The condition of the turf on and around the green quickly improved and debris no longer littered the surface. But then something strange began to happen.
That summer, small patches of scalped turf a few inches in diameter started to appear whenever the sixth green was mowed. Assistant superintendent Pat Callahan first thought unrepaired ball marks were to blame. However, staff reported seeing something protruding from the green in spots where the patches appeared. To get to the bottom of it, Callahan used a cup cutter to do some subterranean investigation and was shocked with what he found. The scalping was being caused by remnants of the root systems from the removed trees, which were apparently still alive and well, attempting to resurrect and multiply locust trees throughout the putting green. The gnarled vegetative runners looked other-worldly when removed from the rootzone and observed in the daylight. The black locust trees were gone but the roots hadn’t forgotten the mission.
