Vandals Attack "Lone Fir" at Chambers Bay

by Mulligan Stu on May 2, 2008 11:54 AM EDT

lone fir - chambers bay In the grand scheme of things, this is a transgression so small as to almost be insignificant. Yet, it's these little acts of vandalism that can really get under your skin. Because they're just so ... moronic.

Chambers Bay Golf Course in Washington is a beautiful place, a place that will host the 2010 U.S. Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Open. It's a golf course surrounded by mountains and by tall coniferous forest around much of its perimeter, water on its other side.

But it's a links course, and within the course itself - against the backdrop of Puget Sound - there is only one tree. It's the "Lone Fir."

"Lone Fir" has already become the symbol of the course, and is destined to become one of the most-photographed spots in golf.

Sometime late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, a person or persons took an axe to Lone Fir, managing to cut through about one-fifth of its trunk's width before giving up or getting scared away. Maintenance workers discovered the vandalism Thursday morning.

The good news is that experts brought in to examine the damage believe the tree can possibly be saved:

Tony Tipton, project manager for Chambers Bay, said a pair of arborists visited the course Thursday to give an initial inspection on if the tree could be saved. Tipton said the person carved into the tree about 3 inches, or about 20 percent of the tree's diameter.

Before being fully briefed on the initial inspections, course general manager Matt Allen said the arborists are more optimistic about saving the tree than expected.

"They think there are some options for being able to save it, or attempt to save it, using some of their expertise on previous trees that have been vandalized or damaged," Tipton said.

...

It many ways, the tree has become the signature image of the course.

"Every time I made a trip up there I made a stop by the tree," Blasi said. "It became part of the Chambers Bay lore and family. It really kind of turned into an icon."

The tree will receive a second opinion from another arborist Monday. Also receiving a second look is the amount of security at the course, which has a public walking trail snaking through the dunes and mounds that create the course's unique makeup.

How stupid, or drunk, or stupid and drunk, do you have to be to think, "Hey, you know what would be fun? Let's go chop down that famous tree!"

Pierce County is offering a $1,000 reward for information. I hope if they catch the idiot he is forced, as part of his punishment, to dig holes for the plantings of several hundred new trees somewhere else in the county.

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