Trees Are a Step in Course’s Recovery

Several oak trees stand beside the fairway, thin and young, nothing more than a glimpse of what used to terrify golfers who approached the sixth tee at Oakmont Country Club.

“There used to be a giant oak there,” said Wade Berzas, an assistant pro at the club. “That oak would eat anything that came near it.”

But the big, old oak was among more than 50 trees--including equally monstrous eucalyptus and cypress--torn down by 77-mph winds that blew on the night of Jan. 6, 1997, just weeks before Oakmont played host to the inaugural Los Angeles Women’s Championship.

Fallen trees littered the property and, more importantly, made a number of holes easier to play. Narrow fairways were abruptly widened. Doglegs virtually disappeared.

It could be years before the course grows all its teeth back, but with the LPGA returning to Oakmont this week, the club has taken some initial steps toward recovery.

Members have spent $100,000 to plant 33 new trees, mostly oak and sycamore, in strategic positions:

* Small sycamores have been planted along the right side of the first fairway, where errant tee shots used to find trouble.

* The oak on the sixth hole once forced wary golfers to stay right. The five replacements will need years to grow into such fearsome size.

* Several oaks have been replaced on the fourth hole, in what used to be another trouble spot.

* The 15th hole lost a lot of trees in the storm last year. Three sycamores have been replaced.

* Eucalyptus and pine have been added to the 16th hole.

* Four oaks have been planted along the 17th fairway, mostly to protect golfers on the adjacent driving range. “Anything coming hard and fast toward them, you want to knock down,” Berzas said.

For professional golfers who play the Los Angeles Women’s Championship this week, a few of the changes will be critical.

“We tried to replicate what was there before,” said Dave Flaxbeard, the golf course superintendent. “I think some [of the new trees] are in play now.”

Others will need three years or longer to grow large enough to effect shots. But some of those trees are supported by guy wires that could make things tricky for any ball that lands nearby.

Either way, the plantings are a welcome sight for a club where, at this time last year, workers scrambled to cut up and remove the debris. One club member described that scene as looking “like a battlefield.”

Now the course is in pristine shape and officials are counting on the relative kindness of El Nino. “We can live with the rain,” Flaxbeard said. “It’s the wind that gets you.”