Divots...???
 

GMS has just spent a lot of money punching and sanding the greens to help keep their beauty and the greens are covered with divots. I've played both championship and executive courses in the last week (the championship course greens are not quite as bad) and I am disappointed that SOME golfers (and I use that term loosely) DO NOT KNOW what a damn divot repair tool is and will not repair their divots. Don't blame it on the snowbirds, they are all pretty much gone. I can only fix so many before I start backing people up. Sometimes I just want to say "f*** it" and leave them, but then, I would become one of you. Come on, guys, if you cannot practice good golf etiquette and leave the greens repaired for others to enjoy, quit the game and go bowling, play cards, read a book or do something that doesn't require any common sense.

If they quit golf they would not know how to deal with the dings in the lanes they create with their sky high lofts. I'd suggest they would be more useful helping dig trenches in the new Villages of Pine Ridge.

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Just like raking the bunkers there are far too many who feel that is someone else's job.
And they most certainly have no idea what ready golf means.

Snowbirds will be back...then I will repair 3-5 divots per hole....

hummm I'm not a golfer but maybe there should be some informative postings at the courses as to what a divot repair looks like and a friendly suggestion about doing so.

The starters here in TV have in the past given out a strip of paper to all with written and pictorial directions on how to fix a ball mark with a divot repair tool.

Welcome to golf.

Again, there are two types of golfers......the majority and the minority.

Majority care for the course, Minority do not.

:bigbow: AMEN

thank you

No doubt some do not fix ball marks, but most I join up with seem to try. Many do not make ball marks and are likely caught off guard when the do :1rotfl:

I think an issue that goes overlooked is that people do not know HOW to fix a ball mark. Look around any green for the brown spots of dirt the size of a quarter. These likely are ball marks that were fixed by raising the depression up to smooth the green.

This exposed the grass roots and the mowers come along and kill the grass.

One of many many links on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m4EyAI8YQA

PS. Do not get me started on some of the hole changers lack of care or skill. The hole plug is replaced where the hole was yesterday are too often put in at the wrong height. This is major mistake for a hole changer, leaving a depression or scalp mark the size of the hole

I'd be happy if people could just stop dragging their feet when walking on the green. Is that too much to ask?

To the ones that think no rules or etiquette apply to them, please spend a couple of hours going to the Good Golf School next month. At least make an effort to learn how/what to do right. I will be watching when I play and I will call people out that don't repair those divots. You are ridiculous for not following one of the BASIC rules of golf.

This is an ongoing problem everywhere in golf. In my 35 years in the business I have spent a lot of time on ball mark awareness and proper repair techniques.

People have got to learn that when you approach a green, you go to your ball mark first, repair it and then go to your ball. This is an area where they should emulate the pros on television. You see it all the time in professional tournaments.

Not raking bunkers is a pain for other players, but it can be corrected by the next player in the bunker. Not repairing the damage made by your ball on the green results in long term damage to the course.

Like I said, I spent 35 years trying to educate people about this and it's still going on. I doubt that it will ever end.

I think most of the people who play golf and do not repair their ball marks, fill divots, and rake sand traps rarely visit this forum. If you've golfed for thirty years, you've seen this activity for thirty years. I consider it disrespectful to the golf course and other golfers, but I finally realized that becoming aggravated by it while I am trying to enjoy my time on the course just seemed to ruin my day.
I fill my divots and one or two more. I repair my ball mark on the green and one or two more. And I rake my footsteps and ball mark in the traps, and anything close by without slowing us up or delaying anyone behind us. It would be wonderful if everyone took care of the golf course...but not everyone does. I do what I can to make me feel good about my respect for the golf course and that seems to work.
There are still two things that irk me, dragging ones feet on the green (though I think some still wear metal spikes) and several ball marks on greens that come from the direction of neighboring houses. But, I'll soon learn to cope with that also... I hope.