18 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT : JUNE, 1953 Landscaping a Course By JOHN R. WILLIAMS, M.D. , ROCHESTER, N. Y.

In the building of a country club, the was about as pervious as a concrete cost of erecting buildings and construct­ pavement. The growth of grass presented ing fairways, greens and tees as a rule an exceedingly difficult problem. To add far exceeds available funds. Hence little" to the desolation, there was a staggering or nothing is budgeted for landscaping. debt. To beautify a fine residence with spa­ Yet, in spite of these handicaps, Oak cious grounds, architects budget from 15 Hill has developed unsurpassed fairways, to 20 per cent of the cost of the building. and the landscaping on its two eighteen- Since club houses are usually pretentious hole courses has given it world-wide dis­ structures, budgetary limitations invari­ tinction. To achieve this has required ably limit such expenditures to the im­ twenty-six years of time but little capital mediate club house grounds. expense to the club. Landscaping of the golf holes, there­ The landscaping program usually be­ fore, becomes a longed-for but seldom- gins around the tees, later around the realized desire, and many of the fine old greens and lastly along the fairways. Each courses on this continent are lacking in of these areas calls for special considera­ natural beauty. tion. Cost Can Be Low At the outset every club should estab­ lish a tree nursery for which one or two When a golfer steps onto a tee to drive, acres of well-drained, good soil is re­ he takes a long look down the fairway. quired. About three fourths of this should A swamp, ravine or creek arouses a sense be stocked with seedling evergreens and of caution and tension. A beautiful tree hard woods, which may be purchased at or a collection of them properly placed low cost from tree growing nurseries or excites admiration. The reaction is likely from the State. Another portion should to be relaxation and appreciation. be set aside for the planting of tree seeds, Beautiful fairways on inland courses such as oaks, hard maples, beech and ash. are essentially avenues bordered by beau­ These can be gathered each fall from tiful trees. The golfer's drive envisages specimen trees in local parks. a distance of 200 yards or more. Objects such as flower beds and shrubs are too Another of the first and most import­ small to have significance. They even ant steps is to form a liaison with a nearby may be distracting. Trees, larger, the state agricultural school, a university for­ more graceful, the supreme plant in na­ estry school, or a state conservation com­ ture, catch the eye. Bunkers bordering mission—all three, if possible. Their ad­ a fairway are ugly scars on carpet of vice and assistance will be found most green. helpful. Oak Hill has been extremely benefited in this way. Trees which may The distressing picture described above be useful and ornamental in residence confronted the Oak Hill Country Club landscaping may be valueless or detri­ twenty-six years ago. We had a beautiful mental on a golf course. Tudor Gothic club house in the middle of '350 acres of abandoned, weed-infested farm land. Here and there were a few About the Tees fence-line trees. Light, sandy top soil The planting about a tee should be at­ blew away with every passing breeze. Clay tractive, restful and protective against the USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: JUNE, 1953 19 elements. One or two deciduous trees, so labor problem and are an interminable located as to afford shade on the tee in . nuisance to golfers. hot midsummer, is desirable. Before purchases are made, one should be thor- Around the Greens oughly familiar with the thermal zones The landscaping of greens differs from of the . These are broad that of the tees. The golfer reaches the bands 200 miles, more or less, in width green, as a rule, after a comparatively and extending irregularly across the long shot. Bunkers afford adequate penal- country; the minimum range of cold is ties for misplays as well as opportuni- approximately the same throughout the ties for the exercise of golfing skill. Ever- thermal zone. Good nursery stock is greens planted about a green are unfair usually listed in relation to th~ thermal hazards, particularly if they are allowed zone in which it will thrive best. Native to grow naturally with the lower whorls material, of course, meets this condition. touching the ground. An evergreen with Therefore, in the selection of evergreens, its lower branches cut off is a monstros- those indigenous to the loeality will prove ity. The trees about a green should be ultimately to be the most satisfactory. In oaks, pin, red or white. By using these, the northeastern United. States, the the leaf and twig problem in the fall is spruces, particularly the white, are at- avoided. Hard maples may be used at a tractive, as is the native hemlock and the slightly greater distance from the green, European larch. Native red and white but elms, soft maples and flowering fruit pines grow luxuriantly. Foreign ever- trees should be shunned. greens, such as the western spruces and A fair-sized green should have about pines and the European conifers, should four trees at such distance from its be used sparingly. They are shorter lived boundaries as to avoid excessive shade and more prone to disease. They look and protruding root growth. Young, de-. well for twenty to thirty years, then tend ciduous trees should be protected against to dh.integrate. Oaks, red, white and pin, mower injury by stakes or other trunk are the trees of choice for planting around guards. both tees and greens because they retain their leaves in the fall long after the Along Fairways close of the golf season. One of the greatest mistakes would be As a beginning, six evergreens, three to attempt to adapt an old apple orchard to four feet in height, and two oak sap- to golf-course landscaping. Old apple lings, five to six feet in height, may be trees are a perpetual nuisance, a constant purchased for $2 or 53 each, a total of source of insect infestations. They present not more than $25. With proper care, a maintenance effort, and expense, such as watering and mulching, ever- throughout the golfing season that could greens will grow from two to four feet better be devoted to more useful trees. and oaks from twelve to eighteen inche~ Plantings along fairways may consist or more a year, so that in ten years this of clumps, or plantations, of evergreens base planting will present sizeable pro- or deciduous trees, but they should be so portions. An oak thirty years from the located as to avoid both undue golfing acorn stage will develop into a twenty- hazards and the fall leaf problem. Trees five to thirty foot tree. Oaks, contrary bordering the fairway should preferably to the common notion, grow quite as be oaks. Willows have their special place rapidly as elms. Elms, soft maples, pop- along creeks and on the banks of ponds, lars and walnut trees have no place near and for this the Wisconsin willow is ad- the playing areas of a golf course. They vised. Birches, beeches and mountain ash, are too fragile and their early falling too, have their place in selected locations. twig, fruit and foliage habits present a A golf hole lined with mountain ash, 20 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: JUNE, 1953

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Paul W. Davit This beautiful avenue of beautiful trees is the seventeenth hole on the West course at the Oak Hill Country Club. It is a par 3 and measures 158 yards.

backed by hemlocks or white spruce, pre­ air currents or wind rivers. They tend sents a gorgeous sight in the fall. both to dry the turf and to cause wind An eighteen-hole golf course of up­ erosion. This is particularly true on hilly wards of eighty-five acres requires for and sandy courses, and for a few years its base planting about 2,000 young trees. it was a problem at Oak Hill. The remedy Large expanses of unused rough serve is skillful planting of evergeens. excellently as tree plantations which ulti­ mately may become small, park-like areas. The Nursery The perimeter of a golf course is best Thus far, only preliminary, or basic, forested with evergreens; white spruce, landscaping has been discussed. The cost red pine and hemlock are ideal. The trees of the material should not be more than should be staggered roughly twenty to .§5,000 and could be much less if a large thirty feet apart. A multiflora rose hedge, part of it were seedling stock. If possible, planted about three fcet from the prop­ the seedling stock should be purchased erty line, makes a beautiful, inexpensive the first year, installed in the nursen and impenetrable fence serving to keep and planted in permanent locations is out trespassers, dogs and cats. At the conditions permit. This can be done by same time it provides a shelter and a the grounds crew in the late fall and source of winter food for game birds early spring, before fairways need major and small animals. attention. With a limited labor force and Evergreens not only serve to screen funds, it may take five years or more ouv adjoining residential districts but to complete this base planting. Mean­ they are invaluable as insulators of while, the young stock in the nursery is noise and as windbreaks. It is not gen­ growing and uniformity in size is main­ erally appreciated that long open fair­ tained. Each year thereafter seedling or ways serve as excellent beds for surface sapling stock of rare or specimen trees USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: JUNE, 1953 21

should be purchased and installed in the honoring members for distinguished ser- nursery. These can be secured in lots of vice to the Club and those who had los1 ten, twenty-five or one hundred at low their lives in the service of our country. cost. European larches, the various west- Many trees now honor members who ern blue spruces, the gum trees, tulip, have loyally supported the club for fifteen Kentucky coffee, Chinese scholar, Russian years or more. Indeed this is a prized olive, the gingko, rare oaks, the dog- feature. woods and flowering crabs are recom- Special trees have been reserved for mended. With the nursery thus stocked, persons who have rendered distinguished the landscaper can look forward to many service to golf. One beautiful pin oak years of progressive beautification honors . Another honors at little further cost for materials. Charles Coe, who won the Amateur When buying nursery stock, do not Championship at Oak Hill in 1949. The rely solely upon nursery catalogue pic- members of the Ikitish W~lker Cup Team tures. Visit a good park or arboretum and who played in that Championship were see a full-grown, mature specimen. 'Von- so impressed with the dignity of the cere- derfu} color effects can be produced in mony honoring Coe that they expressed the fall by various combinations of trees the wish that their visit might be similarly with colored foliage. This is especially commemorated. This was done later in true where hillsides are available for mass the year in an impressive ceremony to grouping. One of the wisest steps a land- which the then British Ambassador, Sir scaping committee could take would be Oliver Franks, sent a. representative. to visit some of the well-known arborf'- In all, there are now 250 memorial turns and parks, such as the Arnold Arbo- trees. A simple, inexpensive tablet of retum, in Boston, and the Highland or masonite bearing the name of the tree Durand-Eastman Parks in Rochester. The and the person honored is attached. The latter, with a hilly terrain, has a public recipient or. his friends may replace this golf course and some of the most beau- with a suitable ~onze plaque. tiful landscaping effects in the world. A The sentimental, esthetic and financial visit to the Oak Hill Country Club would value of the memorial trees to Oak Hill reveal what can be achieved at little .ex- cannot be overestimated. It has promoted pense to the club. a lively interest in the natural beauty of Financing the club because each person honored The question may arise: How does a feels that he is an integral part of the club with a staggering overhead and debt landscap:ng. This activity has proved a finance such a program? fruitful source of income to our land- The first requisite is a chairman with scaping budget. Donations of $50 to S100 missionary zeal and a love of nature. are not uncommon. Previous knowledge or training is not Nothing a cl~b can do will contribute necessary. That can readily be acquired more to its security and permanence and is a richly rewarding experience. than beautifully landscaped grounds. It Next, there should be a small com. has been estimated that it has added mittee of enthusiastic backers. By various more than a million dollars to the value persuasive methods, members of the club of Oak Hill property. Furthermore, be- sh~uld be apPI:oached to supply the ma- cause of it, the building developments terIal for a given project. It can be which are gradually surrounding the club ~ointed out, for example, that for as have already increased the taxable values lIttle as $20 the basic planting of a tee of these properties by at least a million or green could be begun. and a half dollars. A fine country club A project which received vigorous sup- is a- real community asset and stimulus port at Oak Hill was the naming of trees to Euburban growth.