A fallen live oak gets new life as a wood sculpture at City Park

Editor’s note: This article has been updated since original publication to correct Burt Fleming’s location and the duration of time he spends carving nearly 100 sculptures at the State Fair of Texas. 225 regrets these errors.

The many walkers, joggers and golfers who circle BREC’s Historic City Park Golf Course every day have something new to look at as they stretch their legs or hit the links. A wood sculpture of the prolific Scottish American golf course architect, Tom Bendelow, has been carved out of a fallen live oak tree.

The 6’6” sculpture of Bendelow, who designed the 1926 nine-hole City Park course, was carved over the past few weeks by Central-based wood artist Burt Fleming, who the park system commissioned after a storm-damaged oak presented a unique opportunity, says BREC Director of Golf Mike Raby.

“After a thunderstorm last year, one of the 100-year-old live oak trees on the golf course split and had to be cut down,” Raby says. “It was cut to just below where it split, and there was a pretty tall stump left. Someone suggested we find a wood carver.”

Raby reached out to Fleming, a wood artist known for chainsaw carving.

Fleming worked as a machine shop foreman until 2000, when he converted a lifelong hobby of wood carving into a full-time career. Some Baton Rougeans may remember Fleming from the LSU Leisure Class in wood carving he taught for nine years. Fleming says he’s been commissioned by a number of private clients to make large wood sculptures, usually of animals as well as crosses, the Last Supper and other Christian iconography. He’s also a featured performer at the State Fair of Texas each fall in Dallas, where he carves nearly 100 wood pieces in front of spectators over 24 days.

In all of his wood sculptures, including the one of Bendelow, Fleming uses varying sized chainsaw blades to create different details. He also uses hand tools for fine-tuning features. Fleming says he worked from a picture of the early 20th century golf course architect to create the carving, which depicts Bendelow in a flat cap and knickers.

“They told me what they wanted, and I got started,” Fleming says. “As I was working, people would stop and talk and ask questions.”

Bendelow lived between 1868 and 1936, and was nicknamed the Johnny Appleseed of American Golf. He was one of the most prolific golf course architects in history, laying out more than 800 courses of his career, according to NBC GolfPass.

The sculpture is located between the City Park Golf Course clubhouse and the second fairway, Raby says. Soon, BREC will install a plaque and complete new landscaping around the base of the sculpture. Raby expects a formal dedication to take place in September.