They are as majestic as one of Bubba Watson's towering tee shots. But while Watson, the PGA Tour's driving distance leader, carries a big stick, he has nothing on these bigger and bolder billets — the magnificent live oak trees that dot the Daniel Island Club's two private golf courses in Charleston, S.C.

The live oaks at Daniel Island have been revered since the courses were built earlier this decade. Some trees stand 50-feet tall with canopies stretching 70 feet or longer and are a significant part of the golfing experience.

"There are few things that describe the essence of the low-country experience better than a Spanish moss-draped live oak tree," says Matt Sloan, president of the Daniel Island Co., who developed the property where the club is located.

Nobody marvels more at Daniel Island's trees than Mike Fabrizio, director of grounds and golf maintenance at the club.

It's not an accident that the live oak trees stand out like royalty on the two courses, known as Beresford Creek and Ralston Creek. Much thought went into preserving them and other trees during design and building of the courses. In fact, Rees Jones, architect of the Ralston Course, which opened in 2006, started working two years before construction began to plan a course routing to impact as few trees as possible.

Many trees were also transplanted — and with the utmost care. On the Ralston Course alone, 42 oak trees and 100 pine trees were relocated. Some of the oaks were at least 60 years old and had trunks as large as 31 inches in diameter.

"There was a lot of consideration given to preserving trees and doing what had to be done whether it was changing the design of a golf hole or the position of a cart path," says arborist Ken Knox, who was hired as a consultant for the Daniel Island project.

Daniel Island's commitment to protect the trees has not gone unnoticed by the National Arbor Day Foundation. The environmental organization, whose mission is to celebrate trees, awarded both courses its Building With Trees Award. The Tom Fazio-designed Beresford Creek received the award in 2003, and Ralston Creek received it earlier this year.

Large mulch beds are used around the live oaks because it's not easy growing turf around them.

Driving in a golf car across Beresford Creek, Mike Fabrizio takes in the view, a tree-laden vista at which he never gets tired of looking. Fabrizio, a certified superintendent and director of grounds and golf maintenance at the Daniel Island Club, came to Daniel Island in March 1999 about three months before construction began on Beresford Creek.

Fabrizio knows what the trees, specifically the live oaks, mean to the property.

"If a 325-or 350-year-old live oak tree dies, you don't find something to replace it very quickly that has the same impact," he says.

Fabrizio says Charleston has one of the strictest tree ordinances in the country. But the planning meetings for the golf courses turned out to be a breeze. Sloan explained to the committee the steps Daniel Island planned to take to preserve the trees and relocate them, and the committee was impressed, Fabrizio says.

"They are the only public hearings I've ever been to where there was not one negative comment from anybody in the room about the designs," Fabrizio says. "The plans passed unanimously."

From his golf car, Fabrizio points to a corridor constituting one of the holes on Beresford Creek. The average corridor, or total width of a golf hole, is 300 feet to 350 feet, Fabrizio says. But most of the corridors at Daniel Island are 350 feet to 400 feet. While there are trees on the sides of the corridors, the corridors are wide enough to allow ample sunlight to reach the turf, which is vital because bermudagrass needs almost 100 percent sunlight to grow and be healthy, Fabrizio points out.