Treasures That Take a Lifetime

We have some extremely nice, and old live oak trees here at Capital City Country Club that not only greatly enhance the aesthetic beauty and ambiance of the property but also play a strategic role in the play-ability of the golf course. These are truly specimen trees that deserve thoughtful care when considering trimming and removal of branches. The condition of the turf on the golf course requires a tremendous amount of planning, scouting and proper timing of various practices in order to maximize the effectiveness of these inputs and ultimately the great condition of the playing surfaces we all enjoy. As a steward of the grounds at Capital City Country Club, it is my responsibility to provide the best playing conditions the golf maintenance team and I can provide, as well as protect all the wonderful assets of the grounds. Proper pruning of the oak trees is one part of protecting the trees and balancing turf conditions.  

This photo is an example of the technology I use when deciding what tree to trim and what specific limbs need to be trimmed in order to open the canopy of a tree that will allow for more sunlight on a specific site. This tool is an interactive app on my smart phone that utilizes the camera and GPS features of the phone. This photo shows the oak trees right of #9 green. The green line represents the path that the sun follows on the summer solstice, June 21st. The yellow line represents the path on the date the photo was taken, 9/3/2014. I took this photo standing on the edge of the collar and the green on the back right side of the green. As you can see this green does not get much sunlight until after about 11:30 am and the quality of the grass reflects a need for more light.

The photo above is the same location three days later after trimming was complete. As you can see we were able to open windows of sun light where it is needed and not disturb parts of the tree that had no impact on the putting green site or cut main parts of the tree that would permanently damage the tree. The large yellow circle indicates the current location of the sun, in this case at 8:38 am. As the days get longer or shorter, the windows of sun light change and still provide the supplemental sun light needed to grow a healthier turf. This type of selective trimming is not permanent but it does not damage the integrity of the tree nor the health.

It would truly be a shame to unnecessarily damage or permanently disfigure such important features and assets of what makes Capital City Country Club so special.