From the Director of Agronomy: Fairway Divot Repair
Fairway Divot Repair Blog
The question has always come up about the repair of fairway divots. Should the divot be replaced, left out and filled with divot mix or simple do nothing and keep playing. Hopefully after reading this article you will have a better idea of what to do in any situation when you have taken a divot from the fairway.
“Through the green, a player should ensure that any turf cut or displaced by him/her is to be replaced at once and pressed down”. With this statement from the Rules of Golf, the debate begins over fairway divot repair. The passage clearly states that golfers are responsible for the repair of divots resulting from their golf shots. It falls into the same theory as when you have played a bunker shot you should rake the bunker when exiting. Yes, the maintenance crew is also responsible for the repair of divots that where not replace or repaired after they were taken by the golfer. Also, another way divots are filled here at Heritage Shores is by having divot filling gatherings. This is where some of our resident members volunteer a morning of their time to fill divots to help in the recovery of divots and other scars on the golf course.
This is where the confusion surrounding the question above comes into golfers minds about what should they do after they have create a divot. At Heritage Shores we have a grass type on our fairways that is called creeping bentgrass. A divot taken from creeping bentgrass often results in the infamous “beaver pelt”, a rather large divot that should be replaced at once for playability reasons and a speedy recovery of the divot. In fact during the spring and fall months the divot will re-root to the soil that it was taken from. During the hot summer months, the chances of survival are reduced, and the scar that was left behind by the turf removal will likely fare much better when filled with a divot mixture that is provided in the sand bottles on the golf cart. The one thing we would like to avoid here at Heritage Shores is to leave the divot voided of divot mix or replacing the divot back into the scar. The resulting scar could be a path way for crabgrass or other weeds during the summer months. Or just imagine that you hit a perfect drive right down the middle of the fairway and when you get to your ball you see the ball sitting in a divot scar that was not repaired. As we all play by the rules of golf you have to play that shot as it lies and that can be a very tricky shot to control the distance and direction of your shot.
Golf is a game about having fun and getting away from the worlds problem for a few hours, but we still have to do are part in keeping the golf course playable for the next person looking to have a great day at Heritage Shores. So take an extra minute after your shot and repair your divot by replacing or filling with the divot mix provided on the golf cart.