I am not a golfer, or a golf fan, but I think two concepts from the sport apply to arboriculture very well: the long game, and the short game. Have you ever heard the saying, “drive for show, put for dough”? Meaning, you can hit the ball a mile, but if you can’t put it in the hole, it won’t be a very good living. This combination of power and fitness, and being able to blend the two together successfully I think really applies well to production tree work.

Strength and power can be huge assets in production work, and especially in crown access and work positioning. Tree climbing is very physically demanding: defying gravity, holding uncomfortable positions for some cuts or cracking off blocks of wood and throwing them into a safe drop zone all require strength and stamina. Carrying rigging and climbing gear on and off site, moving wood and brush on the ground, and managing all the facets of a job site is not an easy task. It’s high paced and when big jobs are underway, there always seems to be a good sense of urgency that will require physical skill and conditioning. The long game, in a sense.

The big bucket trucks and crane pulling in. The flatbed spray rigs. The tree spade. The 18-inch chippers, the stump grinders and the loaders and the mini loaders an all the black diesel smoke clouding the air. Big work is intimidating for the casual onlooker, like John Daly putting out a cigarette and smashing a 4oo-yard drive. Just stay outta’ the way. That’s real tough stuff. And it’s what most people think of when it comes to tree contractors, right?

Well guess what, until you can get a rope in a tree, or have a razor sharp chain, and a sharp handsaw, or a healthy breakfast, or a good night of hydration, or a perfectly organized gear bag, and all the fuel in place and the filters clean and a climbing system tuned in for the specific work or just the right crane slings for the rigging or just the right length dead-eye for the block or just the right amount of wraps on the portie or the right nozzle on the sprayer, or the right sized pruner head or good blades on the drum or sharp teeth on the grinder, it doesn’t matter how far you can hit the ball or what type of cigarettes you smoke. The short game, especially in tree work, is the real money maker.

In the short game, there is much more of a mental sharpness that proceeds. Focusing the mind on the smaller aspects of the larger system in play. Strength isn’t as applicable as concentration and a cool and calm character. Experience, in a sense, makes up the finer things in the short game. It’s not about how hard you hit the ball, it’s about where you hit the ball. It’s not about how many tops you smashed, it’s about how many Azaleas you didn’t smash.

I don’t know if there’s many tree people out there too fond of the game of golf. It’s safe to say, though, that we can take an interesting lesson from the golfer’s breakdown of power and finesse, when comparing the long and short game, and how each is a perfect half of the whole.

“Smash tops for show, isolate throw line for dough…”