Pitch marks

There's no doubt the issue of pitch marks on greens has been and very much still is a contentious issue at golf clubs around the globe. It's a strange phenomenon as the majority of golfers you talk to on this subject will always say they repair theirs and a couple more?

This year we've undertaken some case studies to try and monitor the repairing of pitch marks. A par 3 green was observed late one morning for 40 minutes, in total 21 people played the hole.

8 players out of the 21 hit the green making a pitch mark. Out of the 8 no one repaired their mark or even looked for it, out of the 21, not one person repaired a pitch mark or looked for one.

Another case study we carried out was on the par 5 16th. We purposely didn't repair any pitch marks from Friday morning set up until Monday morning set up. Following set up we placed a golf ball in every unrepaired pitch mark on the 16th green, in total we placed 60 golf balls on the green. (see pictures below). This was a very disappointing stat to acquire especially as we had just completed a maintenance week in which all works carried out to greens was in aid to make are putting surfaces smoother and truer.

I've no doubt that there are conscientious individuals that do repair their ball mark and one other, but on the above evidence there are many more that don't! I feel a more conscientious effort needs to be adopted by all of our members to deliver the true putting surfaces we all desire.

How to correctly repair a pitch mark

How NOT to repair a pitch mark