RIP The Eisenhower Tree

The Morning Nine for Monday, February 17, 2014

    A dispatch from the arboreal world leads off this edition of the Morning Nine for an eventually snowy Monday:

    1. The news came suddenly, but it probably shouldn’t have been so unexpected.
    Augusta National Golf Club’s Eisenhower Tree is dead. It was believed to be about 150 years old.
    The killer was last week’s ice storm that roared through the south. The old loblolly pine tree on the left edge of the 17th fairway – from afar, as the adjoining photo from 2013 illustrates, it looked more like an oak – lost too many branches under the weight of the ice, and was taken down over the weekend after arborists said it couldn’t be saved.
    The word came Sunday, when Augusta Chronicle reporter Scott Michaux wrote about it, including a photo, on his web site.
    It looked like a carcass torn apart by a ravenous beast. Lightning couldn’t have done a better job of taking apart the tree named after the president and Augusta National member who hit it on a regular basis and whose request to remove it was denied by Cliff Roberts in 1956.
    It was no longer a factor for most drives in The Masters – players hit over it, not into it – but it stood there like an old uncle visiting at Christmas, as much a part of the lore of Augusta as the wild MacKenzie bunker on the 10th fairway, the little corner of heaven called Amen Corner, Magnolia Lane and the pimento cheese sandwich.
    Now? No more.
    For a while on Sunday, Twitter was alive with the news of the tree’s fate, much as it was filled with pictures of the damage to the magnolias on the world’s most famous driveway on the morning after the storm. Even the sign in front of the club was cockeyed, hit by a falling branch.
    Ike’s tree was held up by a series of cables – the same is true of the Big Tree, which stands majestically behind the clubhouse and where everyone who is anyone in golf uses as a meeting point during The Masters – but the club was concerned enough that a similar pine was planted about 20 years up the hill and closer to the 17th green some years back.
    It was wiped out as well. (No word on the Big Tree.)
    Augusta boss Billy Payne called the tree’s demise “difficult to accept.” In a statement, he said, “We have begun deliberations of the best way to address the future of the 17th hole and to pay tribute to his iconic symbol of our history. Rest assured, we will do both appropriately."
    The hunch here: On Masters week, if not before, a new pine will be standing in just about the same spot as Ike’s Tree, ready to accept a low liner hugging the left side of the fairway. Augusta has rebuilt the 11th and 12th greens after Rae’s Creek turned into a whitewater canoe run. A little ice storm isn’t going to get in the way of a tradition unlike any other.

    2. Last year’s go-to spot for Masters week visitors to Augusta was the spot off the 10th fairway from which Bubba Watson hit his impossible shot to set up his winning playoff putt in 2012. This year, it’ll be the 17th fairway, to see what the answer the Lords of Augusta have for Mother Nature.

    3. If this had happened Masters week, the tree might have been replaced overnight. Buildings have been repaired that quickly. In 2012, a severe thunderstorm tore through central Georgia late on Tuesday night. At Augusta, it felled a tree that smashed through the roof of a new restroom building – a big one near the rear entrance behind the fifth green and sixth tee.
    At most golf courses, the plan would have been to bring in portajohns as a temporary replacement.
    Augusta National does not do portajohns. Augusta National rebuilds buildings overnight.
    By about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, when the course opened to spectators a half-hour late for the day’s practice rounds and the Par 3 Tournament, the tree had been removed and the restroom had been rebuilt. Completely, with a new roof, new fixtures, the works. Those who had been in the day before say you couldn’t tell the difference.
    At Augusta National, they can do anything, and apparently don’t need no stinkin’ building permits.

    4. Closer to home, the Chicago Golf Show begins a three-day run on Friday at Rosemont’s Stephens Convention Center. Bigger by a factor of about four than the Tinley Park Golf Show, admission is $5 on Friday, $10 on Saturday and Sunday, with children under 12 free and those from 12 to 15 in for just $4. Of course, parking in Rosemont is maddeningly expensive, but if you car pool with a golf buddy, that’s a help.
    There are 186 exhibitors listed on the show’s web site, with a mix of Chicago area courses and those from afar, all the way out to Florida and, of all places, Atlantic City, N.J. NBC’s Mark Rolfing, a Chicago native, will host special lesson sessions with Jeff Sluman and Bears kicker and golf nut Robbie Gould on Saturday.

    5. Bubba Watson shed a tear or two after winning Sunday at Riviera with a second straight 64. He’s often moved to tears. Wait until he hears about Ike’s Tree. Or is interviewed by NBC skiing analyst Cristin Cooper. He could solve California’s drought singlehandedly.

    6. Wednesday brings the start of the year’s most unpredictable tournament, Tucson’s WGC World Match Play. This was the Tuscon Open in the old days, and might disappear from Tuscon completely after this year. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson and Adam Scott sent their regrets, meaning there’s that much less star power to get knocked out in the early rounds, and the picky pro players generally regard Dove Mountain as a dog track. Even when it doesn’t snow.

    7. KemperSports is now running Cantigny Golf in Wheaton for the McCormick Foundation, except all the same people at Cantigny are still going to be running Cantigny. So what’s the deal? One advantage may be to take advantage of volume pricing. Kemper has so many courses in its portfolio, it can probably buy golf course chemicals and other things in bulk for its entire group.
    All the familiar faces, including head pro Patrick Lynch, will be back this year, and Cantigny brass indicate that there would not have been a deal with Kemper if that was not the case. KemperSports knows the business of golf and delivers value, and has increasingly worked the high end of the market, from Bandon Dunes in Oregon to, more recently, Harborside International on the southeast side of Chicago. This should work out fine.

    8. The Dallas Morning News reports Dallas Country Club has welcomed its first black member into its ranks. Private equity tycoon Kneeland Youngblood was recently admitted – after a 13-year wait to join the ultra-exclusive club. The story indicates there was some dissension in the ranks because Youngblood has connections with the Rainbow/PUSH coalition headed by Rev. Jesse Jackson.
    Youngblood said he plays neither golf nor tennis. But making one deal over lunch would make the $137,000 entrance fee seem like chicken feed. Happily, where people of his color might have only been waiters or busboys to the members before, now he has the chance to make that deal.

    9. Finally, a look out the window and a reading of the forecast indicates the groundhog should not have been consulted on Feb. 2. This could be a muddy wet spring. The best investment this year might not be new clubs, but new DryJoys.

    – Tim Cronin