{"id":793686,"date":"2026-05-13T15:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/793686\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:08:19","slug":"tree-removal-discourse-runs-rampant-at-2026-pga-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/793686\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree Removal Discourse Runs Rampant at 2026 PGA Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph LaMagna<\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> Before a single shot has been hit at the 2026 PGA Championship<\/a>, an early scapegoat is already emerging: the lack of trees. As players traverse the property at Aronimink Golf Club \u2014 some for the first time \u2014 many are tiptoeing around their expectations for low scores and how the golf course will, or will not, test the best players in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Except Rory McIlroy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStrategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent,\u201d McIlroy said on Tuesday morning. \u201cIt’s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think is a lot of these newer \u2014 newly renovated \u2014 I think about Oak Hill in 2023, here. When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He went on to say that the green complexes are the primary defense of the golf course, a defense that will only bare teeth if the weather cooperates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP HUB: <\/strong>Course insights, tournament coverage, and more from Aronimink<\/a><\/p>\n

Jon Rahm offered a more fleshed-out perspective on tree removal, essentially stating that he sees both sides: that it can assist with air flow and course conditioning, but that it does reduce strategic complexity from tee to green. He also mentioned the role that driver technology has played and that laying back off the tee is not a viable option in the modern game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then there is this whopper of a quote from Xander Schauffele, who was, uh, considerably less articulate than Rahm.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hear certain designers saying, I’m going to restore this course to 1915, I’m like, \u2018Well, it probably takes a good hundred years for a nice tree to grow, just to take it out, just to say it was where it was before,\u2019\u201d Schauffele argued. \u201cI think people keep talking about distance and how the game is played, but just put a bunch of trees on a course \u2013 I think Hilton Head is a good example. Do I like Hilton Head? Not really. But it’s hard. It’s kind of crazy, if you look at the winning score at Hilton Head and the winning score at Doral, one’s called Hilton Head, and one’s called the Blue Monster. You’re like, \u2018I think the winning score at Miami is lower.\u2019 It’s just funny when you kind of look at it in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: The golf course where the RBC Heritage is staged each year is called Harbour Town Golf Links, not Hilton Head. But semantics!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garrett, I don\u2019t want to put the cart before the horse and preempt a conversation based on expected scores, but assuming we do see some low scoring this week, is tree removal an appropriate bogeyman?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garrett Morrison<\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> First of all, didn’t we just do this at Oakmont? (Of course, that week everyone forgot about the tree issue as soon as play started because they were too busy complaining about the rough.)<\/p>\n

Second, I\u2019m not sure how anyone with two brain cells to rub together could deem a tree-removal program \u2014 and not, say, the massive, ineffectively regulated leaps in equipment and training technology over the past quarter century \u2014 primarily responsible for low scoring at a pro tournament. I mean, please.<\/p>\n

Now, obviously Aronimink would produce higher scores if the club lined every hole with dense stands of trees. But would that make the course more interesting to play, or to watch being played? In what sense would it reintroduce strategic complexity to the tee shots? (Taking aim at a narrow fairway bordered by trees doesn\u2019t strike me as awfully thought-provoking.) Does the integrity and historical significance of Donald Ross\u2019<\/a> design matter at all here? Are people actually bigger fans of sideways punch-outs than I think?<\/p>\n

Instead of repeating the familiar arguments for tree removal on golf courses, I\u2019ll refer you to this primer<\/a> on the subject from our website and this episode<\/a> of the Designing Golf podcast.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the key point: how to manage trees is a course-by-course question. Before critiquing a particular course\u2019s approach to tree planting or removal, you should familiarize yourself with that course\u2019s design, history, and agronomic needs. I don\u2019t get the impression that either McIlroy or Schauffele went to that trouble in Aronimink\u2019s case. Rahm, to his credit, at least seems aware that such considerations exist.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s run through a brief history of trees at Aronimink:<\/p>\n