Whenever I see a ball mark or a footprint in the sand trap I always thing about the poor children in China who don't even own a green repair tool or a sand rake that isn't missing most tangs.

This makes me feel better.

I can somewhat understand ball marks that show the ball came in low and hot leaving a shallow scar. I suspect the shot wound up off the green and the player went to the ball without walking through the green. The ones that really bug me are the deep ones, indicating a shot that didn't finish far from the impact mark. How anyone who considers themselves a golfer can leave these I don't understand. It was drummed into me as a junior golfer to always leave the course better than I found it. Repairing multiple divots and ball marks and repairing unraked sand bunkers (I prefer to refer to it as smoothing the sand since I've seen some who just drag the rake across their footprints and divot!) is just normal to me. Normal, but frustrating.

While we don't own these courses, they are, in a sense, our courses and deserve better care than they are getting from the players.

:BigApplause: :bigbow:

The things about golf such as divot repair, raking traps, and having one slow group back-up the entire course, is that it can only take one thoughtless individual or group to spoil a great day. Unfortunately these typess of occurences are fairly common in The Villages.

I'm sure it does.

I've played several of the championship and executive courses this week and there is a substantial difference between the amount of divots between the executives (way too many on tees, fairways and greens not repaired) and championships (very few on greens not repaired and very few on fairways and tee boxes not filled with sand). That tells me one thing - as the quality of play goes down of SOME people playing the executives, the care about how they leave the courses also goes down.

I'm going to rail on this as often as I can in an effort to get others to call people out if they see it happening. Come on, the SOME people I'm talking about, divot tools are cheap (you can even use a tee) and the sand is free.

Though I totally agree with the need to fix divots I would not think this would be a good idea, or you might want to keep a fast horse available.... (or a fast golf cart) . :crap2:

The OP is correct. However being right is not enough. First you have a segment of society many of whom retrieve their ball from a hole with the end of the putter grip. they are never going to bend over for whatever reason.

Secondly you have a segment of society who decided to move here and since golf was free they take up the sport. I have watched for the last nine years how so many people playing have no idea what they are suppose to do on a golf course. Worse yet they make up rules as they go along.

Thirdly you have that segment that feel entitled. i am paying my amenities and trail fees, etc so let the help worry about the clean up.

Finally I would just be grateful if they knew or could learn how to pick up the pace of play. Its not that difficult but then the people I am talking about are not real golfers who love and respect the game. This sort of golfer could be entertained at a putt putt course.

Personal Best Regards:

There is an enormous difference between not helping to maintain the course and attacking people who are unable to bend over to retrieve their ball, or who choose to apparently disrespect the "game" by not following every rule of a purist. I am all for letting people make up rules as long as they have an acceptable pace of play. Go ahead and improve your lie, maybe your next shot will go 100 yards instead of 20 from a bad lie, that moves the game along. Take it out of the sand trap if you don't like being in the sand. I don't care if you don't count wiffs or even tee it up in the fairway. Enjoy your game, ignore the rule police, respect the course. And if I'm playing with you and you can't fix your ball mark, ask me and I'll do it for you. And I do like a fun round at putt putt.

We play Bonita, Tarpon, and Redfish regularly. I have noticed recently an increased effort by the ambassadors with respect to fixing ball marks and filling divots on the tee boxes. I think they are really doing what they can to keep the course decent. And it could be a response to complaints, that I wouldn't know. This time of year we play in the mid to late afternoon as there are very few golfers at that time. We find it easy to play nine holes, then walk on for another nine at one of the other courses.

I'm taking a different approach to solve the ball mark problem.
[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/35jxv2a.jpg[/IMG] [oops I guess the camera was shaking]
Anyway, while others are putting, I'll be fixing greens.

This was pretty easy to make. I mounted a green repair tool to the handle end of my ball retriever.

Divots...???
 

Great idea, but it may make retrieving balls out of the water a touch more difficult. Can you use it while you are grilling Tom? [emoji48]

What a great idea! I don't need to grill.

This retriever reaches 2 of my neighbors grills.

chilout

I was given a chilout. However I find it unfair. I am tolerant of others and not as tight as some players when it comes to the rules and etiquette. however their are limits.

I like to a steady pace of play. I like to play by the USGA rules.

I like to focus on my game and I abhor it when people act like they really didn't know what they wanted to do with their day so they decided on golf

There are guys here in TV that play so extraordinary well that they restrict whom they play. I understand and agree with their decision.