A vandal felled a nearly 100-year-old Douglas fir at Cokato Town & Country Club in the early hours of Thursday. The modest nine-hole course in Cokato, Minnesota, is offering a $2,000 reward for information about the incident. Play continued normally after the tree fell away from the fairways.
The towering 70-foot tree stood at a bend on the par-4 seventh hole, a dogleg right that had challenged players since the course was rerouted in the late 1950s. Cokato opened for play in 1929 and the fir had grown into a strategic obstacle that some golfers sliced into regularly. Board member Adam Tabberson said the club believes the culprit may have played there before and targeted the conifer out of frustration. “Depending on your game, it could definitely be a problem,” Tabberson said. “You had a good chance of hitting it if you sliced.”