The constant problem of unrepaired divots

Last month I organised the repair of divots at my golf course.

It was a bigger task that I had imagined.

I had done a similar task a couple of years earlier. It involved nine people and took about two hours.

Last month we had 15 volunteers and it took 3-1/2 hours. It was a huge job and initially I couldn’t understand why it was a bigger job than the previous occasion.

It wasn’t until later that I realised that on the first occasion it was only the repair of divots on the tee grounds.

Last month it was the whole golf course.

We split into two groups. One group did the first nine holes, the second group did the second nine holes. Each group had a greenkeeper’s cart that carried the sand for the group and each person had a bucket to carry their own sand.

We spread across the fairway and simply filled in each divot with sand and tried to keep out of the way of golfers which, as it turned out, was a very busy Monday morning.

The main reason I organised the divot repairs was I had become frustrated about the number of unrepaired divots around the course.

We get a ton of green fee players at that time of the year and I am sure they are the main culprits — although not totally. Members can be just as bad.

Seeing unrepaired divots is so frustrating that I sometimes wish we didn’t allow green fee players. Unfortunately, however, green fee players are vital to the economy of the club and good for the growth of the sport.

And of course I am myself a green fee player when I am visiting another club.

So, anyhow, a good job was done last month. Sorry, a great job.

But then came the nuisance factor. A few days later when I played my next round of golf I kept coming across unrepaired divots. More green free players — and probably members — not repairing divots. They simply don’t care. I wish had cameras around the course to catch the culprits.

The same applies to bunkers. Once again the frustration is high when I see unraked bunkers, especially when no effort has been made whatsoever.

I remember going into a bunker at a golf course on the Gold Coast in Queensland some years ago. The bunker was a complete mess.

I played my shot and then spent about three of four minutes raking the bunker. A couple of holes later I was passing the same bunker and saw a guy play several shots in the bunker, step out of the bunker and started to walk away.

I shouted out him to rake the bunker and he sheepishly went back and did so. I was pleased I told him off.