Tree Services for Golf Courses
Arbor Pride’s arborists remove, prune and deadwood trees on golf courses and other large grounds across Sydney, including Killara Golf Club. We work with your course superintendent to plan the work around course shutdowns, so it fits around play.
One of our senior arborists will walk the course with you, assess the trees and send you a written quote. For commercial work such as golf courses, schools and universities, we cover all of Sydney metropolitan.
Request a site visit and quote, or call 1300 887 417.
What Tree Work Does a Golf Course Need?
Most golf courses need a mix of safety work and care for the trees that shape the course. We look after:
- Tree assessments and arborist reports, which set out the priority work across the course
- Removing dead or dangerous trees, including large trees near greens, fairways and the clubhouse
- Deadwooding, to take out dead limbs before they fall on players, paths or buildings
- Pruning to keep play lines, sightlines and paths clear
- Crown lifting over paths, carts and maintenance areas
- Thinning canopies to let more light reach the turf, which improves turf health
- Stump grinding after removals, so the ground can be levelled and returfed
- Storm clean-ups, when a tree or branch comes down on the course
Trees are a big part of what makes a course look and play the way it does, so we always aim to keep the ones that can be kept. Where a tree has to come down, we take it down in sections, so nothing damages the greens, the fairways or the clubhouse.
How Do You Work Around Play and Protect the Course?
We plan course work around the club’s shutdowns. The course is usually closed on the days our team works on it, which happens about twice a year for two or three days at a time. Tree work that does not affect play, away from the holes, can go ahead at any time.
On the course itself:
- We keep off the greens. Our team avoids walking on greens and takes great care with the rest of the course.
- Trucks and chippers stay on service roads and paths, to avoid unnecessary wear on the turf.
- We assess the risks every day. At the start of each job, our team leader carries out a risk assessment on site, and it is documented and returned to our office.
- We talk to your superintendent. Before work starts, the superintendent can walk the site with our team leader and point out anything we need to know.
- Branches are chipped on site. At Killara, the mulch was kept for the club’s further use.
We do not usually book course work at weekends, though we make an exception for an emergency.
One-Off Jobs or a Regular Program?
Either works. Killara Golf Club books us about two to three times a year, for anywhere from one to seven days at a time, covering pruning, removals, assessments and reports. There is no signed agreement: each round of work is assessed and quoted on its own, so the club stays in control of what is done and when.
Here is how a round of work usually runs:
- Your course superintendent asks us for an arborist report. We walk the course together and assess the trees.
- The report sets the priorities, and we quote for the work.
- The club board reviews the quote. In our experience, boards usually follow the recommended work.
- We check which trees need council approval, and lodge the applications for you.
- Once council has approved the work, your superintendent books dates with our office, usually during a course shutdown.
Tree Assessments and Reports for Courses
A golf course can have hundreds or thousands of trees, so the work starts with knowing which ones need attention first. Our arborists assess the trees on your course and give you a written report that sets out the priority work, which the club can use to plan and budget.
Where a tree’s safety is in question, we can also carry out a formal tree risk assessment. See our arborist reports for the full range.
Killara Golf Club: What the Work Involved
Killara Golf Club is in Ku-ring-gai, and our work there shows what large-scale course work looks like.
The first visit: a large Sydney Blue Gum. A large Sydney Blue Gum (Eucalyptus saligna) needed dismantling to ground level. We brought in a 16-tonne crane to lift the sections clear safely. A log truck took the large timber away, and the branches were chipped on site, making mulch the club could use.
The return visit: deadwooding across the course. A few months later, we deadwooded more than half a dozen Sydney Blue Gums, including one near the 18th green, and pruned another eucalypt near the clubhouse. We also shaped a large silky oak (Grevillea robusta) and looked after a tallowwood and a liquidambar. A tracked cherry picker was brought in to deadwood and tidy the club’s spectacular weeping peppercorn tree. Council approval was sought and received, mainly for the reductions on the Sydney Blue Gums, a species native to the area.
Read the full Killara Golf Club project.
Do You Need Council Approval for Trees on a Golf Course?
It depends on the council and the tree, and we check this when we assess the course. At Killara, Ku-ring-gai Council’s approval was needed for work on the Sydney Blue Gums. We organise all the council applications for you, sending them through with our arborist report.
Our council regulations pages explain the rules for the councils we work in most.
What Our Customers Say
“So professional, safe, friendly and a job well done. The work was for a strata of 18 townhouse[s]. The workers arrived on time, checked in with me, explained what they were going to do and did it without fuss. Also monitoring the public driveway for any cars or people coming in and out.”
Karyn, Google review
“[Arbor Pride] was professional, careful and safe. The attendance punctual, the noise minimal, and the cleanup excellent. The most wonderful was the result, the trees and hedges looked magnificent at the end of the work. Real Value.”
Ananda, Google review
“Arbor Pride is one of just a couple of companies in Sydney I found that could advise on how to save trees, and not just fell them… The team arrived on time and were magnificent. They trimmed our trees and cleaned away any mess. They did a great job trimming the very large tree in the back yard, including thinning out and shaping the canopy. They erected caution signage on the road to advise of the woodchipper ahead.”
Tina, Google review
What a Club Receives Before Work Starts
Before any work starts, your club receives:
- Our certificate of insurance, attached to every quote, showing $20 million public liability cover
- A written arborist report and a quote for the agreed work
- Council approvals, where needed, which we apply for on the club’s behalf
- A discussion of how the work will be done, with your superintendent and our point person
- A documented risk assessment on site at the start of each job
Our founder, Julian Parry, is an AQF Level 5 Consulting Arborist and a VALID and QTRA tree risk assessor. We are also certified to ISO 14001, the environmental management standard.
Other Large Grounds
Large grounds suit us well, because our crews can split up and work on two things at once. As well as golf courses, we work for colleges and universities, including St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney. See how we help schools and universities, strata properties and commercial properties, including commercial tree removal in Sydney.
