Pitch Marks - Who and Why?

[newtogolf]

13 minutes ago, DrvFrShow said:

You know sometimes people just don't have the tool to fix them and don't know enough to use a tee - the tee is back on their golf cart, not in their pocket.

I think golf courses could benefit if instead of charging the meager 50 cents for the pitch mark repair tool - the cheap one they have at the counter that works, they'd just give one away when a person checks in. I know these seem like an added expense, but come on, I'd pay an additional 50 cents a round if the thing was included in the price. If you have one on you already, you get a 50 cent discount.

This way there's no excuse for not fixing your pitch marks.

The excuse is some people are lazy, some people won't even bend over to get the ball out of the hole and we're expecting them to bend over and repair pitch marks.  

[DrvFrShow]

Some people, not all. Some.... if we can get say 50% more people fixing pitch marks.....

[tdiii]

1 hour ago, Osnola said:

People do not fix their pitch marks or ball marks because the course they are playing isn't their own personal property...If it was, maybe they would fix them...

Except that is not true either.  I am a member at an equity club now and was a member at another in my area several years ago.  Sadly, I still find myself fixing ball marks.  Maybe there's an entitlement thing -- I pay the greenskeepers, they can fix it.  I don't really have a good theory for it. 

I also want to find the @ssholes who won't rake bunkers and take range balls out on the course.  Both are at my club -- I haven't seen them in the act. 

I want to push for hidden cameras and nail some of these jerks. 

Edited July 13, 2016 by tdiii

[boogielicious]

21 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

We have an "adopt a green scheme". Mine is hole four. The idea is that every time I play that hole, I look for and repair pitch marks

This is what I do when waiting for others to putt or get on the green. 

[Vinny Cap]

I think we would all have to agree that it appears to be an entitlement thing, lazy people and ignorance.  I played a really nice course a couple of weeks ago that had free tools right next to the score cards yet the greens were pretty rough and the 2 guys we were paired with never fixed a single mark.  I fixed a ton more than I made and they seemed to look away when we were fixing them.

[mcanadiens]

15 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

You know sometimes people just don't have the tool to fix them and don't know enough to use a tee - the tee is back on their golf cart, not in their pocket.

I think golf courses could benefit if instead of charging the meager 50 cents for the pitch mark repair tool - the cheap one they have at the counter that works, they'd just give one away when a person checks in. I know these seem like an added expense, but come on, I'd pay an additional 50 cents a round if the thing was included in the price. If you have one on you already, you get a 50 cent discount.

This way there's no excuse for not fixing your pitch marks.

This is a good idea. If nothing else, it will remove ignorance from the list of possible excuses.

The cost might be made up by less maintenance hours on the greens. Possibly better conditions would result in more rounds played and the more revenue that comes with it. Slap a nice course logo on it and it doubles as advertising.

15 hours ago, tdiii said:

Except that is not true either.  I am a member at an equity club now and was a member at another in my area several years ago.  Sadly, I still find myself fixing ball marks.  Maybe there's an entitlement thing -- I pay the greenskeepers, they can fix it.  I don't really have a good theory for it. 

I also want to find the @ssholes who won't rake bunkers and take range balls out on the course.  Both are at my club -- I haven't seen them in the act. 

I want to push for hidden cameras and nail some of these jerks. 

A private club and they play range balls on the course? Wow. I thought that was just for us muni types. I wouldn't have thought your lot would be caught dead with a range ball on the course.

[tdiii]

8 hours ago, mcanadiens said:

This is a good idea. If nothing else, it will remove ignorance from the list of possible excuses.

The cost might be made up by less maintenance hours on the greens. Possibly better conditions would result in more rounds played and the more revenue that comes with it. Slap a nice course logo on it and it doubles as advertising.

A private club and they play range balls on the course? Wow. I thought that was just for us muni types. I wouldn't have thought your lot would be caught dead with a range ball on the course.

Right???  It's a total mystery.  My best guess would be teens who have failed to steal balls from Daddy's bag. 

9 hours ago, Vinny Cap said:

I think we would all have to agree that it appears to be an entitlement thing, lazy people and ignorance.  I played a really nice course a couple of weeks ago that had free tools right next to the score cards yet the greens were pretty rough and the 2 guys we were paired with never fixed a single mark.  I fixed a ton more than I made and they seemed to look away when we were fixing them.

I'd say, "Aren't you going to fix that?"  Or, "Are you really a douche bag?" 

[No Mulligans]

High handicappers make a lot of pitch marks...

Game Golf says I average 33% GIR, that's 6 per round.  Plus at least a few shots to the green that aren't a GIR but are far enough to make a pitch mark.  I'm guessing about 10 pitch marks per round on average.  (My last round had a 67% GIR )

 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 7/13/2016 at 1:30 AM, CR McDivot said:

I think that if one realistically considers it, most pitch marks are made from 100 or more yards out. At least that is my experience, seldom do I find marks resulting from less than full swing shots.

So... Whom is it that hits greens from 100 or more? Typically this is NOT the weekend hacker, rather the intermediate to better player.

Why are these supposedly more serious golfers leaving pitch marks all over the greens? Do they not know better... or are they so caught up in themselves that they overlook the common courtesy of repairing their pitch mark.

I try to repair all my marks, and any other I find. Unfortunately, if the pitch mark has aged more than a few hours in this high desert climate repair won't do a whole lot.

You take the game seriously?

FIX YOUR DAMN MARK!

WELL SAID, SIR!!! This has been a wild hair up my ass for quite a while now! I swear, when you look at the condition of some greens today, you'd swear that the game has been taken over by clueless morons! To me, leaving an unrepaired pitch mark is no different than throwing an empty beer can or water bottle out of your cart into the fairway!

It seems I repair at least a half dozen marks on every green in the time I have to do so. I can't get to them all! And it doesn't seem to matter if I'm playing a goat ranch or a really nice course. There are slobs everywhere!

When I was first learning to play this game, I never made a ball mark. It was only when I began to get better that they appeared. I was proud to have made that mark, and equally proud to repair it! I felt that marked me out as a "golfer". I think we need more "golfers", rather than people who simply "play golf".

[CR McDivot]

3 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

High handicappers make a lot of pitch marks...

Game Golf says I average 33% GIR, that's 6 per round.  Plus at least a few shots to the green that aren't a GIR but are far enough to make a pitch mark.  I'm guessing about 10 pitch marks per round on average.  (My last round had a 67% GIR )

 

Did you repair all your pitch marks? Good on you!

[No Mulligans]

1 hour ago, CR McDivot said:

Did you repair all your pitch marks? Good on you!

I'm like most who have chimed in on this thread, I'm in the positive column. I've repaired more pitch marks than I've made.

[Vinny Cap]

19 hours ago, tdiii said:

Right???  It's a total mystery.  My best guess would be teens who have failed to steal balls from Daddy's bag. 

I'd say, "Aren't you going to fix that?"  Or, "Are you really a douche bag?" 

They were 65 and 72 years old.  I wanted to say something but bit my tongue.

 

16 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

When I was first learning to play this game, I never made a ball mark. It was only when I began to get better that they appeared. I was proud to have made that mark, and equally proud to repair it! I felt that marked me out as a "golfer". I think we need more "golfers", rather than people who simply "play golf".

This was me when I started and my exact thoughts as well.  Well said!

[DaveP043]

19 minutes ago, Vinny Cap said:

They were 65 and 72 years old.  I wanted to say something but bit my tongue.

I've found that a polite offer..."I'll go ahead and fix your ball mark on this hole" ... is effective to shame some people into fixing them the rest of the way around.  Much more effective than actually indicating my annoyance at their moronic behavior.  And I don't care about the age, if you can bend over to pick the ball out of the hole, you can bend over and repair a ball mark.  

[newtogolf]

8 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I've found that a polite offer..."I'll go ahead and fix your ball mark on this hole" ... is effective to shame some people into fixing them the rest of the way around.  Much more effective than actually indicating my annoyance at their moronic behavior.  And I don't care about the age, if you can bend over to pick the ball out of the hole, you can bend over and repair a ball mark.  

What if they have one of those suction cup attachments on the end of their putter?  

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

What if they have one of those suction cup attachments on the end of their putter?  

I have a buddy who truly can't bend over well, after a couple of hip replacements.  Besides the suction cup, he also has a little thingie so he can put a tee in the ground, and then set a ball on it.  At this stage, however, he makes very few pitch marks, because his ball flight is so low and he hits it so short.  I'm glad he's still playing, and I'll happily fix any marks he makes.  And I'll do that for anyone who truly has those kind physical limitations.  

[Vinny Cap]

17 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I've found that a polite offer..."I'll go ahead and fix your ball mark on this hole" ... is effective to shame some people into fixing them the rest of the way around.  

Thanks Dave.  I will give that a try next time.

If they are my age or younger I speak right up till they start fixing them.

[Papa Steve 55]

I got my lesson the first year. I was out with a couple of other friends all trying to learn the game at the same time. We  were at an executive course so were hitting a fair number of greens. After about 5 holes the ranger pulled ahead of us, parked in front of the green and spent the next 20 minuets repairing every ball mark on the green to perfection. He came back to us and said if we each repaired a couple along with our own, it would take a lot less time. I've tried for two on each green ever since.

[Aguirre]

A lot of people are just clueless on the golf course. I always try to drive the cart because people do not drive well. They go to the wrong ball first, park at the wrong spot around the green etc. Put the flagstick on the green in the wrong spot. On and on.

A lot of golf shots often leave pitch marks but end up missing the green. I would bet that large majority of those go unfixed, because it simply doesn't enter into the players head a couple minutes later when they approach their ball.