COURSE CARE: Repair your plug marks

That’s a lot of golf balls on the 13th green…….about 700 in fact!

What is alarming is that each golf ball represents a pitch mark that has not been repaired or repaired incorrectly!! 

What is even more alarming is that we ran out of time to put a ball on every pitch mark!

At this time of year grass growth has slowed down considerably, and as a result pitch marks take longer to repair.

But we can all help to maintain the quality of our playing surfaces with just a little effort and care.

In addition to the obvious benefits of maintaining a truer putting surface for yourself and fellow members, there are some longer term benefits for us all to repair at least our own pitch marks.

The disruption to the surface caused by an unrepaired pitch mark only gets worse the next day, as mowing then scalps the lifted turf and causes the scarring to double in size.  

A properly repaired pitch mark will heal within 7-14 days, whereas incorrectly repaired pitch marks can take double the time.

Each pitch mark (i.e. golf ball in the above photo) represents an ideal seed bed for the one of our greatest management challenges, Poa annua. Poa is an annual grass that is very susceptible to heat, drought and disease stress, produces uneven putting surfaces and as such is undesirable in our greens. However, it also produces enormous numbers of seeds (up to 2500 per plant), and germinates very quickly, so any weak areas of turf are ideal for its establishment. We spend approximately $15,000-$20,000 each year on Poa control, so the less opportunities we give it to establish, the better.

Each pitch mark also represents an area of wounded turf, which are ideal sites for fungal disease infection. With a typical application of fungicide costing between $1,000 and $2,000, we want to avoid them too!

How to repair a pitch mark:

1. Discard any loose turf taken out by the ball
2. Insert the pitch mark repair tool just outside the back of the pitch mark
3. Lever the turf (not the soil) towards the centre of the pitch mark
4. Repeat this action on all sides of the pitch mark
5. Tamp the repaired mark gently with your putter

What NOT to do:

• Do not replace any pieces of turf taken out by the ball….they will die anyway and delay the healing process
• Do not lift the soil from the centre of the pitch mark, as this will create a larger area for grass to grow over and delay the healing process
• Do not insert the pitch mark repair tool and twist…..it will only break away more turf and delay the healing process.

So please invest a little bit of your money on a pitch mark repair tool from the Pro Shop, and a little bit of your time repairing at least your own pitch marks correctly……..it will make an enormous difference.