Golf Divot Tool

Golf Divot Tool

If you have hit your dream drive down the middle of the fairway only to find it lying in a fresh divot or had a birdie putt deflected off line due to a decaying pitch mark on the green, you will sympathize with the following tale.

I recently got out to the golf course for a rare Monday morning tee off with the boys. As per usual, I got there an hour earlier to tune up the game and hopefully establish some sort of rhythm to my swing. On the practice green I ran into our groundskeeper Sandy. I've been playing the course for 5 years now and have gotten to know Sandy pretty well. We usually exchange some small talk about my evolving pull-slice and her never-ending battle with green and fairway maintenance. I approached Sandy and asked my usual "How are they rollin' today?" Sandy just sighed and mutter some curse word about the 'weekenders' (her term for the visitors that flock to our neck of the woods every weekend in the summer). When I asked if they had left the course a mess, she replied with a "You got a minute?"

With that, we were off in her cart to green number 1. Sandy parked and proceeded to guide me through the now pock-marked green. She was able to identify and distinguish pitch marks (commonly called ball marks) that she had to fix herself because golfers over the weekend either didn't take the time or were just unaware of the damage they were doing. Sandy's crew, rather than spending valuable time doing other golf course maintenance, were all out fixing thousands of abandoned marks that were left on the other greens.

Our tour concluded with a slow trip back down the first fairway. We stopped every few feet as Sandy spotted and filled several divot marks with her sand/seed mixture. Apparently the same culprits who defaced her greens had done the same to her lush fairways. Sandy was not a happy camper. "If only golfers were forced to be groundskeepers for a day," Sandy lamented.

Fixing pitch marks and divots is Golf Etiquette 101, but many golfers still don't do it. It's fast, easy, and more importantly, it would make Sandy's day. Here's how we can help:

Fixing and Replacing divots:

1) Ask the golf course superintendent if there are any special procedures to follow as golf courses are not uniform in the types of grass and mixtures they use.

2) You've just hit a great wedge to the green. Understandably your focus and attention was on the flight of your ball. However, you now have the responsibility of fixing that blemish you made in the fairway. Either a) take the sand/seed mixture that is on the side of your cart and fill the hole, tapping it down to create the most level lie possible or b) go and retrieve the turf you carved out (or its many pieces) and replace it back into the hole. Make sure that you replace the grass in the same direction it came out. Also, tap it into the ground securely so that the grounds crew won't rip it our with their lawnmowers and so that the roots can take hold into the ground again. Job well done! Now on to that pitch mark you just made on the green.

Fixing Pitch (Ball) Marks

1) Find and locate your pitch mark. It will be the freshest one on the green and should be in the vicinity of your ball.

2) Take out your ball mark repair tool. If you don't have one, the golf course probably has a basket full of them in the pro shop. In fact, most golf courses give them away to their customers (with the hopes that you know how to use them).

3) Push the prongs of the tool into the ground directly beside the pitch mark at a 45Ës angle. Gently work the turf back up to the surface and repeat the process around the entire pitch mark. When completed, use the bottom of your putter to flatten the turf and make it as smooth as possible.

4) Find another pitch mark on the green and repeat step 3. It's the least you could do while waiting for your playing partners to putt out.

If golfers everywhere could just follow these simple steps, the quality of play on our fairways and greens would be so much better. A single neglected divot or pitch mark can take up to 3 weeks to heal properly and negatively affects the playing conditions for golfers that follow. Now multiple that by a thousand and you might start to appreciate the position that Sandy and all other groundskeepers are faced with everyday trying to keep our tracks running smooth and clean. If only we could all be groundskeepers for a day.

Jason James Ferris

Golf Divot Tool

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