R.I.P. The Hinkle Tree

An unbylined AP story reports on the demise of golf’s most infamous spruce.

The Black Hills spruce known as "The Hinkle Tree" was partially uprooted by a gust of wind this week at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, and was cut down.

It was to celebrate its 41st year at Inverness this June.

You know the story by now most likely: Hinkle found a short cut and the USGA commissioned an overnight planting, not that it stopped Lon Hinkle or Chi Chi.

But during the next round, Hinkle and his playing partner, Chi Chi Rodriguez, decided to hit their tee shots over the tree.

"There was maybe a couple hundred people at the tee, waiting to see what I would do,'' Hinkle told The Associated Press in 2003. "I used the full size of the teeing ground and went to the left corner of the tee box. The tree wasn't really even in the way. This time, I used a driver and flew it over the tree and had only a 6 iron to the green.''

Again, he made birdie.

Here was a feature on the tree re-posted by the USGA.

Sad to see the Hinkle Tree at @InvernessClubGS come down 😔

It was planted overnight during the 1979 #USOpen when it was discovered during the first round that Lon Hinkle had found an alternate route off the tee on the eighth hole. pic.twitter.com/jjTvOuTvoS

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) March 6, 2020