Twister 2.0 Pitch Mark Repair Tool

[billchao]

Does anyone have any experience with the Pitchfix Twister 2.0?

I realized the other day that I fix a lot of pitch marks: mine, my play partners', players in groups ahead of me, etc. (This one group must have been pretty good because there were a lot of fresh pitch marks on the green, I'm guessing they all accidentally left their repair tools in their cars )

Anyway, I was thinking maybe I should upgrade my repair tool to something better. I currently use one of those souvenir ones with the fatter tines that I remember reading somewhere aren't the best for the turf. This one seems good and easy to use, but what do you do if you pop a divot out of the green with your pitch mark? You can't pull up on bare soil to repair a green.

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, billchao said:

Does anyone have any experience with the Pitchfix Twister 2.0?

I realized the other day that I fix a lot of pitch marks: mine, my play partners', players in groups ahead of me, etc. (This one group must have been pretty good because there were a lot of fresh pitch marks on the green, I'm guessing they all accidentally left their repair tools in their cars )

Anyway, I was thinking maybe I should upgrade my repair tool to something better. I currently use one of those souvenir ones with the fatter tines that I remember reading somewhere aren't the best for the turf. This one seems good and easy to use, but what do you do if you pop a divot out of the green with your pitch mark? You can't pull up on bare soil to repair a green.

It doesn't look very promising. Most pitch marks have all the turf pushed out to the side. The proper technique is to push the tool straight down and push the turf back into the middle. The best tools for that are simple thin two prong tools.

 

[DaveP043]

We had these for sale at our club for a while, and I managed to resist buying one.  As it worked out, the tines were OK for pulling turf straight up, but not sturdy enough to push/lever the displaced turf back towards the center of the ballmark as @boogielicious describes.  

[colin007]

10 hours ago, billchao said:

You can't pull up on bare soil to repair a green.

Why are you pulling up at all when repairing a pitch mark? You push the grass/soil on the high side back into the middle and then tamp it down.

[chilepepper]

Not something I want in my pocket. Too bulky. I'll stick with my flat repair tool

[David in FL]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

It doesn't look very promising. Most pitch marks have all the turf pushed out to the side. The proper technique is to push the tool straight down and push the turf back into the middle. The best tools for that are simple thin two prong tools.

 

This...

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

We had these for sale at our club for a while, and I managed to resist buying one.  As it worked out, the tines were OK for pulling turf straight up, but not sturdy enough to push/lever the displaced turf back towards the center of the ballmark as @boogielicious describes.  

This...

43 minutes ago, colin007 said:

Why are you pulling up at all when repairing a pitch mark? You push the grass/soil on the high side back into the middle and then tamp it down.

And this...

 

[billchao]

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

It doesn't look very promising. Most pitch marks have all the turf pushed out to the side. The proper technique is to push the tool straight down and push the turf back into the middle. The best tools for that are simple thin two prong tools.

Yea I'm aware of the proper method with traditional repair tools, but I was wondering if a different type of tool with a different technique would have any merit.

As it is, I agree that it looks like it would have trouble pushing the displaced turf on the sides back because I couldn't picture how pulling up in the middle of the mark was going to magically fix everything, and...

2 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

We had these for sale at our club for a while, and I managed to resist buying one.  As it worked out, the tines were OK for pulling turf straight up, but not sturdy enough to push/lever the displaced turf back towards the center of the ballmark as @boogielicious describes.  

Thanks Dave for confirming our suspicions.

The video on their site showed a really simplified pitch mark and repair, like the kind made from shots 60 yards and in. I imagine it probably performs well on those on medium firm greens, but here in the Northeast you're guaranteed to encounter soft greens during the season where ball marks end up looking like craters.

2 hours ago, colin007 said:

Why are you pulling up at all when repairing a pitch mark? You push the grass/soil on the high side back into the middle and then tamp it down.

If you watched the video, that's the whole point of the design. Golf balls push the turf down, so this tool gently lifts it back up without disturbing the surrounding turf and roots. You can't lift with a conventional repair tool because you'll damage the green.

Just because a conventional repair tool is all we have available to us doesn't necessarily mean the method is the best, just the best we can do given our tools.

1 hour ago, chilepepper said:

Not something I want in my pocket. Too bulky. I'll stick with my flat repair tool

Yea that's something I didn't give much thought to. Probably wouldn't bother me though, I usually carry an extra ball in one pocket, I could balance out the other side with this if I had it.

Or I could put it in my utility belt 

1 hour ago, David in FL said:

This...

This...

And this...

 

I'm just happy you didn't suggest replacing my repair tool with a chipper 

[dennyjones]

4 hours ago, billchao said:

I'm just happy you didn't suggest replacing my repair tool with a chipper 

Now that's funny right there...

[colin007]

6 hours ago, billchao said:

Yea I'm aware of the proper method with traditional repair tools, but I was wondering if a different type of tool with a different technique would have any merit.

As it is, I agree that it looks like it would have trouble pushing the displaced turf on the sides back because I couldn't picture how pulling up in the middle of the mark was going to magically fix everything, and...

If you watched the video, that's the whole point of the design. Golf balls push the turf down, so this tool gently lifts it back up without disturbing the surrounding turf and roots. You can't lift with a conventional repair tool because you'll damage the green.

Just because a conventional repair tool is all we have available to us doesn't necessarily mean the method is the best, just the best we can do given our tools.

I'm still not sure if you understand that there shouldn't be any lifting, regardless of the tool?

[billchao]

1 minute ago, colin007 said:

I'm still not sure if you understand that there shouldn't be any lifting, regardless of the tool?

Do you have a reasoning that I haven't addressed above? As far as I can tell, the only reason we don't lift up on pitch marks is because we don't have a tool that can do it properly without damaging other things. This, supposedly, is able to do that.

I'm not a greenskeeper so I couldn't tell you how it affects the greens after a few days compared to a regular pitch repair tool. I'm also not going to be able to get a cross-section of turf to prove or disprove their claims.

[colin007]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Do you have a reasoning that I haven't addressed above? As far as I can tell, the only reason we don't lift up on pitch marks is because we don't have a tool that can do it properly without damaging other things. This, supposedly, is able to do that.

I'm not a greenskeeper so I couldn't tell you how it affects the greens after a few days compared to a regular pitch repair tool. I'm also not going to be able to get a cross-section of turf to prove or disprove their claims.

Huh? When you lift, you pull the grass apart from the roots. Which is precisely why you end up with little brown patches of dead grass.

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, colin007 said:

Huh? When you lift, you pull the grass apart from the roots. Which is precisely why you end up with little brown patches of dead grass.

That happens when you pop, because you're pulling up from the center which is depressed.

There are a lot of tools out there that employ a little "twist" with "spikes" type of motion:

• http://www.crosshairsgolf.com/GreenStik-Pitchmark-Repair-Toolitem.item
• https://shop.tjb-inc.com/golf-putting-green-saver-ball-mark-repair-tool-for-natural-grass-greens-p1141.aspx
• Etc.

[hilmar2k]

How about something like this...

https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Mender-Multi-purpose-Golf-Divot/dp/B0048792OG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502289380&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+mender