What’s a decision you made on the course that looked wrong in the moment, but time proved was right?
When I became the Golf Course Superintendent of a Seth Raynor course built in 1925, I inherited sixty-one years of tree growth, as well as tree and bushes plantings over those sixty-one years. Right away I started cleaning up under the trees, trimming branches rooting on the ground, cutting unruly grass and weeds growing up under trees and bushes, cutting down sapling trash trees, and doing my best taking down widow maker branches.
Some of the bushes behind number one green were so overgrown, an employee cut a path into them where he was hard to be found and could sleep.
Some branches had grown completely over number four, a par three green making it nearly impossible to hit the green. I was quickly stopped by the golf committee and there was a meeting. I spoke about cleanup, trimming, life risk, and original design. I brought up more of a discussion on playability and what was best for the turf.
What I heard was expected, “We like the trees.”
As I have stated in a previous blog, my role was to, “Give just the facts”, and I stuck to the original design and Seth Raynor. I had some old pictures of the course to show and again passed out some agronomic facts about shade, tree roots, wind, moisture, fertility, disease, insects, etc. As usual, I don’t want to get too far into the weeds so here is another great list to read from the USGA. (Click Here)
No one is at fault for these situations because time moves on, generations change, people in charge change, and there must be an overall plan in place to last for ages and why. (Click Here)
It took quite a few years, which was understandable, to catch up on Seth Raynor’s design thoughts. The biggest one was studying Raynor, his history and history of the club. Then we had to find the right Golf Course Architect with the education and understanding of Raynor. (Click Here)
After most of this was in place and moving forward, I believe we were one of the first Private Clubs on the east coast to start the tree plan process. This involved taking down hundreds of trees but also planting trees in return, in the right places. The Seth Rayner original is now “ALMOST” original and is well written about. (Click Here)
One of the things that I told the golf committee on my last day was that I still believe they can get rid of the two new holes, number six and seven, to go back to the full original design. Never say never!
The course from 1927
-Mark S. Merrick, CGCS Retired
Introducing ‘Merrick Mondays’, a segment where we hear from Mark Merrick, our resident brand Ambassador, Chief ‘Cool” Officer, and general source of wisdom and secrets of the universe, to spotlight a dose of interview-style content, weekly.