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.

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.

Divots...???
 

I completely understand your positions on this subject. I had an uncle who was a club pro. He taught me the rules of golf and etiquette as a kid. I take liberty with the rules from time to time but not proper etiquette. Having said that I enjoy myself and try only to play with others who can as well. We live in a fabulous community. The views, birds and wildlife are a pleasure to observe - not the uptight, club throwing, golfers who take 5 minutes to evaluate their next putt from every angle. I also dislike being behind a foursome of men's day golfers. I've seen PGA events move faster.

My motto is: I enjoy golf but I don't get in a twit about it.

PS. I didn't think you deserved the chill out.

There was a guy who played in our group in CA, that took pace to an extreme. One time he and I as a twosome (he in a cart and I was walking) played 18 in 90 minutes. By the time I got to my drive, he was on the green looking back at me. One time, standing on our 18th tee, a par 3, the group in front was shaking hands at the end of their round and he yelled out, "You're wasting my time!". I tried to hide. I refused to play in any group he was in.

There is a happy medium.

Amen!

If they can bend over to put a tee in the ground, then they can bend over to fix a divot. Call me a purist if you want; I was always taught to leave EVERYTHING as I found it.

There's another thread going on hosted by Polar Bear. He's looking for players for next thursday night [after 5pm]. I'm going. I can show you my green repair tool mounted on the handle of my ball return. There's a lot of good golfers in this thread. I hope you sign up.

We have a member of our group that has trouble putting a tee in the ground. He has even more trouble with ball marks so someone in the foursome will take care of them for him. Since we repair our own and others we see anyway, it's no big deal to help him, and the course, out.

The PGA/USGA promotion by Arnold Palmer of "while I am still young" rings true. Unnecessary piddling can add much time to a game and create an unnecessary and rather rude back up.

I have played with guys who are cordial not rushing but consciously in the game so that we finish before or at the recommended time for play.

On the other hand I have played with guys who seem to suffer from some sort of obsessive disorder that adds greatly to time or they sit over a shot forever.

To make my point Major League Baseball also has an issue with time and has advised its players to cut back on some of the rituals they perform before making a pitch or going to bat

I played one course in the same week recently. The difference was an additional half hour because of the : why I am young routines were performed by two different players on the second day. One of the players had the same routine and it took him about three minutes before he tee his driver on ever hole. In that same vein I have played with guys that balked if you pulled the stick..now that's too much and that is rude and that's not golf.

Personal Best Regards:

Ok, I fail to see where fixing divots constitutes piddling; getting a sand bottle and pouring the sand takes about 30 seconds and repairing a ball mark on a green takes maybe 10 seconds. Or have we dived off into another subject?

People are just unbelievable with the "holier than thou attitudes"! I golfed about 30 years ago, quit and now I'm back to taking some lessons. I actually went online and read the rules even though I was pretty sure the rules hadn't changed much regarding golf, common sense and common courtesy!