GOLF ETIQUETTE - DIVOTS & SAND BUCKETS
What is golf etiquette? Golf etiquette refers to a set of rules and practices designed to make the game of golf safer and more enjoyable for golfers, as well as to minimise possible damage to golf equipment and courses. Although many of these practices are not part of the formal rules of golf, golfers are customarily expected to observe them!
A very important part of etiquette involves the care of the golf course. Take the re-filling of divots for example. There’s nothing worse than actually making the fairway on a ripper of a shot only to have your ball roll into a divot or an unfair lie, left by an earlier player.
To prevent the frustrating of this from happening and to make our golf more enjoyable, a simple solution is to fill any divots you make throughout the course of the game!
To do so, make sure you collect a bucket and fill it with sand before you tee off, so you can use the sand to fill any divot holes made during play (including tee shots). Buckets are located by the Pro Shop building and you can fill up with sand at the 1st and 10th holes, as well as plenty of sand filling stations located around the course.
PGA Teaching Professional Scott demonstrates in the video below how best to fix a divot by refilling it with sand and gently levelling the sand with your foot or club so it becomes a flat playing surface again. Believe it or not a divot needs to be filled correctly as an unlevelled divot may damage course equipment, result in poor lies and will take the divot longer to repair.
Replacing and repairing divots is designed to get turf growing again as quickly as possible. Failure to replace or repair a divot can add weeks to the time it takes for the turf to heal itself.
So do yourself a favour and grab a bucket of sand before you start your game and start filling in those divots if you don’t already do so! Other players and the health of the turf will thank you for it.
A few moments of courtesy during your round will not only help those playing behind you, it will help to keep the turf in better condition and assist the grounds staff in maintaining the quality of the course for your future games!
