Does replacing divots Work?

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Farmergeddon

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Anyone with greenkeeping experience?? Just been through a divoting exercise, driving the tractor you understand not doing the hard work, and was amazed to see the amount of dead divots being taken out of the holes to be filled with sand and seed.. Does replacing a divot work at all or only some of the time?? we are going down the root of having bottles of the mixture available to be taken round.. I rarely take a divot myself but my mate does and we have been discussing the effectiveness of the action..
 
Farmergeddon said:
Anyone with greenkeeping experience?? Just been through a divoting exercise, driving the tractor you understand not doing the hard work, and was amazed to see the amount of dead divots being taken out of the holes to be filled with sand and seed.. Does replacing a divot work at all or only some of the time?? we are going down the root of having bottles of the mixture available to be taken round.. I rarely take a divot myself but my mate does and we have been discussing the effectiveness of the action..
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How often does your ball end up in one. I cannot remember the last time I did. However, my record in one round is 3 times. Also, I would rather be in n a divot hole than Sat on the top of a freshly replaced one.

Ours never seem to grow back very well. Specially when the crows lift them looking for food.
 
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We've been encouraged to use divot bags, seed and soil mix, for 3 years and fairways are in very good nick as most folks will now fill rather than replace.
 
Personally I would much rather be sitting on a replaced divot than sitting in a divot hole - everytime, every shot. But clearly from the previous post there are differing views. Even a soil/sand/seed mix fill is better than my ball in a small deep hole.

As to replacing divots to repair - as long as there's moisture, and the crows don't pull them back out, they will re root quickly if replaced straight away. In many ground conditions they won't take at all through a dry summer. Soil and seed everytime.
 
upsidedown said:
We've been encouraged to use divot bags, seed and soil mix, for 3 years and fairways are in very good nick as most folks will now fill rather than replace.
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What do they tell you to do with the lump of grass/mud that you take on your shot if you don't replace it. I assume that you don't simply leave them littering the fairway so they must be put or thrown somewhere.

As an aside, is it the hole that is left when playing a shot that is the divot or is the bit of ground that gets removed the divot? And, regardless of which of the above is correct, what's the other one called?
 
Yes divots do take root.

And for those of you that use wooden tees and end up with broken ones, use the broken one to peg the divot down. It helps them take and stops the birds from turning them over looking for worms.
 
ColchesterFC said:
What do they tell you to do with the lump of grass/mud that you take on your shot if you don't replace it. I assume that you don't simply leave them littering the fairway so they must be put or thrown somewhere.
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The very big ones you're supposed to replace but rest are left to be chopped up by the mowers.
 
Here in the USA almost universally you fill in with a seed/sand mixture usually on the golf cart.

As I like to walk I have an old Crown Royal pouch that holds some but I am not a big divot taker.
 
Anything is better than nothing, on our 7th and 16th the divots are barely replaced and are not replaced by a grass mixture, it has got to the stage where we can place the ball on those fairways because there's too many divots
 
Hobbit said:
Yes divots do take root.

And for those of you that use wooden tees and end up with broken ones, use the broken one to peg the divot down. It helps them take and stops the birds from turning them over looking for worms.
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I read this, on here I think it was, years ago and have been doing it ever since. The wooden tees will break down.
 
If replacing a divot works then how does pulling up a pitch mark ruin the green?


Even if it didn't work. I much prefer everyone put their divot back as it looks much more tidy and less chance of being in a hole. Why anyone would rather be in a divot than on one is beyond me.
 
garyinderry said:
If replacing a divot works then how does pulling up a pitch mark ruin the green?


Even if it didn't work. I much prefer everyone put their divot back as it looks much more tidy and less chance of being in a hole. Why anyone would rather be in a divot than on one is beyond me.
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That is correct, you are meant to be hitting the ball before turf so being on top of a replaced divot should not be an issue. The ball will be airborne before the clubhead hits the loose divot turf.
 
Depends on a variety of factors (grass type, moisture, root length etc) but yes they do grow back, there are these biodegradable anchors clubs can get to pin old divots back which would be better than old tees which hurt mowers and won't degrade near as quickly. Only ever seen them at one club though and forgot what they were called.
 
Something works because like most I'm rarely in a divot mark and there would be many thousands if they couldn't be repaired

Although we rarely replace a divot, its predominantly repaired using sand/seed mix so that definitely works (and if they're using the green mix then its nigh on invisible from a few yards away)



One course I play asks that you leave any divot un-repaired and they don't supply any seed mix either (feels a bit weird walking on after chunking a shot) The ground-staff go round a repair/re-seed them at end of each day
 
Rarely in a divot mark and I'll always replace mine and walk off in the basic assumption it'll take and bed in. Of course I know birds will turn them over and I'm sure trollies must disturb a few and that we'd possibly be better if we used seed mix bags more. However we've tried putting them out on the tee boxes (one hole per week) for members to pick up and seed as they played and put the bag in a by the next tee. Amazing how many, even on a busy weekend were left hanging there. Members then wonder why their course isn't as pristine as they'd like.
 
most of the divots on our course get overturned by magpies and crows, we have started having a seed mix boxes next to the places where divots are most prevalent. Sadly it seems a lot of players do not know what there are for.
 
garyinderry said:
If replacing a divot works then how does pulling up a pitch mark ruin the green?


Even if it didn't work. I much prefer everyone put their divot back as it looks much more tidy and less chance of being in a hole. Why anyone would rather be in a divot than on one is beyond me.
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I was referring to brand new divots that had only just been replaced, because if you ground your club and the divot moves the ball will move. Then it is a penalty shot.
 
I don't know. But, if I can, I replace them as that is what has been asked. Its not difficult acquiescing to such a request. But today's society seems to want to question everything.
 
We have biodegradable pegs to anchor the divot back into the hole. I would have thought that a sand and seed base in the hole and then replace the divot would encourage a two way meshing of turf and new grass.
 
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