"The Three Sisters" trees

I've lived in the same house since 2011.  We back up to the 18th fairway of a country club.  Out back there are 3 trees that I have taken to calling "The Three Sisters".  Every autumn, they turn great colors and I often take pictures.  These are pictures taken right from one of the two large windows in my living room.  You might even notice some glass/window glare in the pictures...

Oct 2016:

Oct 2017:

Oct 2018:

Looking back in pictures, I can not find any more recent pictures but every year The Three Sisters are still great.  

By the time I got home yesterday it was already dark with sunset times in Dec being about 4:45pm.  If its dark out, you really see nothing out my living room windows.  But this morning, a few hours after being up so more like 10am, I noticed this...

Dec 2022:

Yesterday, they cut down the orange tree!!!!  I'm really bummed out.

Aw, man!

That's such a nice view. Shame about the tree; I hope they had a good reason.

I sympathize. I've lived in the same house for decades, and some of the trees around the property have been here since the beginning (and long before that). Back in September, one of the big oaks had to be taken down after it split and dropped a huge branch, exposing terminal rot (before this, the tree showed no signs of ill health).

I still can't get used to the view.

I'm pretty sure they cut down trees on golf courses for 3 main reasons:

1. The "low handicap club" of golfers who complain about hitting them.

2. Trees suck up the sunlight that makes it easier to grow grass.

3. Trees suck to mow around. 

Our local golf course has been removing trees by the hundreds (seriously) over the last few years. Once they got an irrigation system they didn't need the shade to keep grass alive in the hottest parts of summer, and now they are optimizing the grass farm. 

In reply to 02Pilot :

that tree identified as a man, no outward signs of the internal rot that eventually caused its downfall.

Golf courses are a blight.

Looks like they'd planted the 3 sisters too close to each other, honestly. Surprised they didn't take down the middle tree though.  

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm pretty sure they cut down trees on golf courses for 3 main reasons:

1. The "low handicap club" of golfers who complain about hitting them.

I think you mean high handicap golfers. The low handicap golfers won't hit it.

My first house had this gorgeous sugar maple right next to it just on the other side of the driveway. A real landmark tree. One day I got home and it had red paint on it. I called the owner of the empty lot and they were going to cut it down and put in a rental house. I made an offer and bought the lot, putting some of it on credit card zero interest cash advances because I didn't have enough money and a mortgage on a cheap empty lot doesn't make sense cost wise. 
 

So that's the story of how I spent $12k saving a tree. Worth it. 

In reply to mtn :

Haha didn't know about that tree but that is why I used quotes. 

Our local course (I assume most have the same) has a group of regulars who all claim to be better than they ever seem to play, and they complain the loudest about any and all course issues. 

Not that I can talk, since I play very poorly. But at least I never complain about a tree that gets in my way.

Almost everytime my golf ball gets stuck in a tree, the tree was there first.