NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA | It is a discussion that titillates course architecture nerds, many of whom bemoan – and rightly so – the outsized impact technology now has on the game.
How necessary are trees to a great golf course design?
Nearly 100 years after Donald Ross, the da Vinci of his time, laid out a course that rivaled Pinehurst No. 2 for his ultimate affection, Aronimink is something of a case study this week because modern-day master Gil Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner took down a significant number of trees when they worked here nearly a decade ago.
More thinning preceded the arrival of this week’s PGA Championship here, though most of those trees were not integral to play.
It should be noted that Ross, in his book “Golf Has Never Failed Me,” wrote that trees should not “crowd out the real intent of a golf course.”
For all of its supposed gentility, golf mirrors society in that it appreciates a gentle controversy so long as the name calling and finger pointing is kept to a minimum, as it has been this week even as Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm have opined that Aronimink may not be a total test because its tee shots don’t ask the toughest questions.
“I think in this day and age I’m not sure if it’s going to test all aspects of your bag … strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent,” McIlroy said.
“It’s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there.”
“I’m like, well, in the back of my mind, they planted those trees with the future vision of having those trees in play, and now you’re taking them all out. While I see both points, I don’t know which one is more valid than the next.” – Jon Rahm
Rahm wondered aloud if minimizing the tree canopy at Aronimink and other classic courses is stylistic or honoring the designer’s original vision.
“I’ve been making this joke for the last few years where I see a lot of golf courses coming in saying, look, 100 years ago, this golf course was like this, there was no trees,” Rahm said.
“I’m like, well, in the back of my mind, they planted those trees with the future vision of having those trees in play, and now you’re taking them all out. While I see both points, I don’t know which one is more valid than the next.”
Aronimink wasn’t strip-mined but it was opened up, creating expansive vistas across the property that bumps and rolls with a natural rhythm, giving the layout much of its character. It is a generalization but Aronimink is a classic Northeastern golf course, the kind that seems to have been created to host major championships like this one.
Put another way, Aronimink looks the part even if Hanse has been asked to explain – more than defend – what has become of the original Ross design.
“I really like and respect Rory but I don’t know where trees become strategy on the golf course if they are out in the rough. That’s not where you’re trying to hit your shot,” Hanse said this week on Golf Channel.
“To his point, the recovery aspects are not as dramatic as they would be if there were trees everywhere.”
The intention, Hanse went on to say, was to honor Ross’ original vision which “was primarily a treeless golf course.”
The perception that Aronimink is short by modern standards – it is listed at 7,394 yards, par-70 and includes a 546-yard par-4 – speaks to the modern nature of the game. Traditionalists argue that trees and thick rough on the edge of landing areas are essential to combating the prevalence of power that defines golf at the highest levels.
The discussion also dovetails into the often hot-blooded debate over the proposed ball rollback, which added a wrinkle this week with the recent revelation that Cameron Young, arguably the game’s best player since last September, has been using a new Titleist ball that would meet the proposed protocols.
Young has won three times – the Wyndham Championship, the Players Championship and the Cadillac Championship – since switching to the Titleist Pro V1x Double Dot prototype.
In the process, Young hit arguably the shot of the year, his 375-yard drive on the 18th hole in the Players Championship that helped lock down his victory. Young averages 312 yards off the tee, all of 1.2 yards shorter than he did primarily using a different ball last year.
It’s fodder for those who believe the rollback proposal would have a minimal effect on the longest hitters while more emphatically impacting shorter hitters.
“I don’t think any of us are out here playing the ball that goes the farthest. I think you’d struggle to find a single person that’s doing that.” – Cameron Young
Young made the switch not realizing the potential Pandora’s box he was opening. He just liked it because it allowed him to better control his iron shots.
“I think I put it in play the same reason that everybody else plays the ball that they play. I hit it during a ball test [at] one of the Titleist facilities probably close to two years ago and didn’t know anything about it and just kind of said, hey, what’s that one? Because I liked the flight,” Young said.
While it might not be true for most golfers, Young said distance isn’t why he chooses the ball he plays.
“I don’t think any of us are out here playing the ball that goes the farthest. I think you’d struggle to find a single person that’s doing that,” Young said.
“We’re all sacrificing a certain amount of things that we feel are worth it, control with irons, control with wedges. For me, the biggest thing is being able to control spin, and this is the ball that does the best for me.”
Trees or no trees.