Safety verses Emotion - These decisions are never easy

After the loss of what we though was a perfectly healthy tree behind our 10th green, there has been a lot of discussion with in the Greens Committee regarding member and staff safety and liability. The Basswood tree came down in the middle of the afternoon between the 10th green and 11tee while players were close by. Luckily no one was inquired.

This brings up the discussion of the the Ash Tree along the right side of the 6th fairway. There is no doubt the health of the tree is in question. How long do we let it go before we have the same thing happen as we did on the 10th. Branches are cleaned up every day from underneath it as the dead wood with in it increases.

The discussions are leaning towards taking the tree down sooner than later. So how do we compensate for the loss of the tree. There are many ideas floating around but before anything is to be done patience will need to be practiced to get a better feel for how the hole plays with out it. Secondly, our architect will offer advise on what we should do next. Whether it be bunkers, tree planting or work around the green I am sure we will all find a way to make bogey on it.