Now that the season is well underway, I thought it would be a good time to talk about divots. When you hit a shot from a tee or fairway and the divot stays intact similar to the first picture below, you want to replace that divot. If replaced within 24 hours of being removed, it has a very good chance of surviving. Obviously you want the soil side down, and once in place, you want to step on the divot to smooth it out and make sure the existing roots contact the soil. Sometimes a little divot sand can be applied if the divot doesn't fill the entire void. If the divot explodes when striking the ball, there's no reason to try to gather all the little pieces. They won't survive so the best course of action is to fill the void with divot sand.
Speaking of divot sand, we purchase a special blend of sand that is dyed green and contains a nutrient package designed to help the new turf quickly grow. The divot sand comes in 2,000 pound (1 ton) super-sacs and we have a "Divot Mixing Area" in the maintenance building where we add bentgrass seed to the sand/nutrient blend using a standard cement mixer purchased from one of the home improvement stores. During the summer, we go through one super-sac of divot mix per week between the divot bottles on the carts, the six refill stations throughout the course, in the divot boxes on the tees, and what the staff uses when filling divots each day. By the end of the year, we will have used 25-30 super-sacs, at a cost of $410 each. Bentgrass seed costs $11 per pound and we use around 200 pounds per year.
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Please use the divot sand only on tees and fairways. Using the mix in the rough and along cart path edges leads to contamination and undesirable playing conditions. Rough-height bentgrass is also more susceptible to disease and dies out easily during the summer leaving large areas of dead or thin turf.**
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| This is a fairway divot and should be replaced since it stayed intact |
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| Void where the divot came from |
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| Divot was replaced and stepped down to smooth out. No divot sand was needed |
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| Fairway divots weren't reusable so the voids were filled with sand |
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| Tee divots improperly filled with sand. Notice how the sand is piled up between the divots. This wastes sand and dulls the mowers |
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| "Divot Mixing Area" at the maintenance building |
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