Gary Player has made an impassioned plea to golf clubs to stop cutting down trees on courses in the name of restoration.
“Something happening in America is a tragedy, and it is a disease: they are cutting down trees all over the place,” says the South African nine-time Major champion, who has lost none of his fire at the age of 90.
“They should be planting trees, not cutting them down,” continues Player, who has won more than 165 tournaments since turning professional in 1953.
“It is enough to make you cry,” he adds.
“People on club committees who order trees to be cut down should go to jail for a year. I really believe that.
“They are destroying nature and we need trees to fight pollution, and tree roots save erosion, and trees provides homes to birds and they offer us shade.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“It is so sad, they have cut down a lot of trees,” says Player, who is an honorary member at Aronimink.
“It is still a magnificent golf course, but people have been advising these clubs incorrectly. They say they want to get the golf course back to its original state, so does this mean that all golf courses cut down every tree?”
The Aronimink golf course was designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1928 – a time when there were about a dozen trees on the course – and Gil Hanse led a restoration project there between 2016 and 2018.
“We’re repainting the picture of the golf course that Ross wanted,” said Hanse in 2018.
“We did remove some trees, and the course certainly has a much more open feel than it did even 20 years ago… We’re working to get a nice balance between what the property evolved into, and what it started out as.”
Hanse widened some fairways, which is in keeping with the “Golden Age” architects like Ross, who wanted golfers on the tee to think about what side of the fairway was more advantageous, rather than simply trying to find the middle of a narrow…
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