The Divot Crisis At St. Andrews

[David_Tepper]

Read all about the looming divot crisis at TOC:

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1520462007

[Adam Clayman]

The number of divots - holes made in the fairway when players take a stroke - has soared into thousands each week, caused by advances in club technology and people using the 'wrong' kind of shot for a links course.
Some links experts even claim the divot crisis is getting worse because of the widespread desire to imitate the swing of modern professionals such as Tiger Woods.

This seems spurious or at least incomplete.

What role does irrigation play in this?

Blaming recent rains for an inadequate divot mix, seems weak too.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Adam- It can be quite difficult to get the divot holes to recover. Rain washing the divot mix out, is quite rare though in the UK. I would say dry conditions where the seed mix can blow away or overfilled divots where the mowers chop the new seed away are the more challenging problems. Seeing a perfectly filled divot with new seed is hard. Keeping the mowing height up is the best solution, but for the top courses charging top $$$ for green fees I suppose the customers want 'tournament' conditions. Many of the courses on the open rota use their fairway irrigation systems very sparingly.

[C. Squier]

I just love how "American-style" golf is one step under a curse word.  If you don't like how "we" play, don't take our money to do so.  Simple.

CPS

[Mark Chaplin]

I suspect the problem is more to do with the number of rounds played over TOC by golfers of all abilities rather than by our American friends. Playing in late April not too long after the winter mats had finished I was shocked to see just how many divots were on TOC. Maybe the caddies should carry sand and seed mix to get a good percentage of the divots repaired daily not weekly.

At Deal we welcome Americans and American style golf although doubt "ASG" is the most effective way of getting around the links.

[Sean Walsh]

Mark,

Also would appear to have a lot to do with how bad the growing season has been here in scotland this season.  Oh please go and wash your mouth out with soap, I've got enough to carry already

[ed_getka]

Carrying a bottle with sand/seed mixture would readily solve the problem I'm sure. It's TOC for goodness sake, I don't think  the pilgrims will mind taking care of golfer's Mecca if given the opportunity.
  FWIW, when I was there a few years ago I was surprised that the fairway divots weren't as bad as I expected after hearing about the mats that are required part of the year. In two rounds I had no encounters with a divot.

[Joe Hancock]

  FWIW, when I was there a few years ago I was surprised that the fairway divots weren't as bad as I expected after hearing about the mats that are required part of the year. In two rounds I had no encounters with a divot.

Those mats must have worked quite well.

 

[ed_getka]

Or it may just be that I'm a picker and rarely take divots.

[Adam Clayman]

Adrian, As I understand divot mix, a proper proportion of a mulch type medium is needed for the exact reason these apparently disappeared. Sand alone does not cut it, nor does seed alone.

[Jeffrey Prest]

This wouldn't be the first fall-out from the new Stack & Tilt swing craze, would it?

I'm only sayin'...

[Doug Spets]

After spending last summer walking The Old Course, I was amazed at the amount of divots in certain areas of the course.  The little saddle-back where shorter drives on number 7 land was like the surface of the moon.  Several other areas (landing area on 13, between the bosoms on 15, etc) were pretty dodgy, too.

The only problem with carrying a sand-and-seed bag (aside from getting the Scottish caddies to even use them) is the wind.  The mixture is mostly sand...and windy days will empty the divots as quickly as they can be filled.  Last summer, they had eastern European immigrants filling the divots on the Links Trust courses...hitting each course at least once a week.  With new members of the European Union, I would think finidng cheap labor wouldn't be a problem.

The part of the problem that can't be solved is having four golfers hitting the turf every 10 mintes from 6:30am til 6:30pm...6 days a week.  Old Tom used to say the course needed a day of rest every week...imagine the course condition if he weren't so.

As for divots...Americans have no advantage on anyone else when it comes to making them on the Old Course.  Everybody makes 'em.

[Rich Goodale]

St. Andrews does not (theoretically) allow on the course real hackers (i.e. the ones who havercampishly chop down on the ball ), and the number of really good players (who can slice and dice the fairway with their modern swings) is small.

Ever since play on the top links courses started to grow significantly in the mid-80s, all of these courses have employed divot-fillers, some more aciduously than others.  The only time I have seen divot problems is when courses don't invest enough time and money to keep them under control.  The Links Trust seems to be spending no more than 100-200 pounds per week filling divots (~20-25 man-hours).  That's a couple of green fees.  They could spend more.  Also, maybe moving the tees around a bit more than they tend to do could give some rest to the more visited gathering places for drives and second shots.  The idea of using the pros to change visitors' swing patterns is Monty Pythonesque!

I'm sceptical about the news value of this story.  It looks like filler to me.....

[Matt_Cohn]

The idea that hackers take larger divots than good players just isn't true.

Nobody takes larger divots than pro golfers. If you don't believe me, check out the fairway of a short par-4 the day after a PGA Tour event.

I sure haven't been to TOC but I doubt that the quality of the players has anything to do with this problem.

[Rich Goodale]

Matt

You obviously are too good to have played with real hackers, or too young to have seen "Caddyshack".....

Rich

[Matt_Cohn]

Ha ha, re: caddyshack.

And I have certainly played with hackers!

But Richard, not to distract from the main conversation too much, my observation is simply that the typical hacker lacks both the power and swing path to take divots larger than the pro's take.

[Rich Goodale]

You are right, of course, Mark.  All I was saying is that a very small percentage of the people who play the Old Course annually are powerful enough to cause any significant damage.

[Steve Kline]

Also, maybe moving the tees around a bit more than they tend to do could give some rest to the more visited gathering places for drives and second shots.  

I like this suggestion. They could let players of a 3 handicap (pick a number) play from a set of back tees. I thought it was really lame when my dad asked if I could play from the back tees as a plus handicap. The response was (cue snooty UK accent speaking down to an American) "The back tees are for championship play only."

[Ray Richard]

I believe there are severe restrictions on the amount of fertilizer they are allowed to put on the fairways at St. Andrews. This can really impact the turf density and consequent recovery. Most American course use plenty of fertilizer to push the turf color and vigor.

[Adrian_Stiff]

The problem with divots are the number of rounds coupled with the fact that the fairways bumps and hollows mean that some areas get severe wear.
The only real solution is as they do during the non grow season.. use mats. Divots need filling in and only a % will germinate new grass successfully during the growing season, at least the hole is filled. The divot mix should mirror the fairway rootzone, or else in time the composition of the fairways would change.
Using different tees for different standards wont help as the better players will hit further and infact a more likely concentrate will occur. If you really want the divotted area to recover quickly you need to 'syringe irrigate' the affected fairway for around 10 days, this could be done with play going on manually with a greenskeeper overseeing. The syriging needs to be for about 2 minutes per sprinkler every 2 hours while it is warm, that should keep the divot mix damp enough to get the best germination.
The next problem is cutting the new seedlings with the mowers, so a divot needs to be slightly underfilled!

[Gary Slatter]

I agree that the article is a filler, the Old Course is not under attack by new clubs or "american" style golf. If anything the thicker soled clubs bounce more than the blade-type.

IMHO: the sand mix blows away, it is not applied often enough, they don't put fertilizer in the mix as this "encourages" poa and they don't like poa ("too green and succulent, slow"), the use of different tees more often could help, actually repairing the hole by replacing your divot and stepping on it works better than doing nothing.  I watched a few R&A groups last week and none repaired their holes on the 18th.  Fewer players could also help, and a warmer summer than this one might also assist.  The Moe Norman saying about "taking bacon strips for divots, not hamburgers" would help.

I played Carnoustie last week and they have more of a problem than the OC, although it is not really a problem as most of the areas are from the Open and many yards past where we played from.   Finding a source for sand is not easy either.  The grit available makes for great sparkling shots with the big headed drivers.  Brilliant in the twilight!

[Gary Slatter]

The problem with divots are the number of rounds coupled with the fact that the fairways bumps and hollows mean that some areas get severe wear.
The only real solution is as they do during the non grow season.. use mats. Divots need filling in and only a % will germinate new grass successfully during the growing season, at least the hole is filled. The divot mix should mirror the fairway rootzone, or else in time the composition of the fairways would change.
Using different tees for different standards wont help as the better players will hit further and infact a more likely concentrate will occur. If you really want the divotted area to recover quickly you need to 'syringe irrigate' the affected fairway for around 10 days, this could be done with play going on manually with a greenskeeper overseeing. The syriging needs to be for about 2 minutes per sprinkler every 2 hours while it is warm, that should keep the divot mix damp enough to get the best germination.
The next problem is cutting the new seedlings with the mowers, so a divot needs to be slightly underfilled!

"while it is warm"  when's that?

[Rich Goodale]

Gary

A problem on links courses is that due to the relative dryness of the soil, the divots don't really "stick" back in their holes and are easily blown away or, more often, removed by birds to get at the creatures dwelling in the holes.  A lot of courses even recommend that you NOT replace your divots, for that reason.  My guess is that R&A guys were following SOP.

One thing which seemed to work is a divot "nail" made of biodegradable material which you use to attach the divot to the ground.  I've only seen it at Lundin Links though, and a few years ago, and during the off season.  Not sure why it hasn't caught on.

Rich

[JESII]

One thing which seemed to work is a divot "nail" made of biodegradable material which you use to attach the divot to the ground.  I've only seen it at Lundin Links though, and a few years ago, and during the off season.  Not sure why it hasn't caught on.

Rich

Yeah...me too...do they give you a nail gun and work belt to lug around as well?

How about we just plaster the divot from the inside...

[Rich Goodale]

I like that nail-gun idea!  The claw hammer I was toting kept getting in the way of my hip turn.