TST Member Review - Birdicorn Ball Mark Repair Tool

[iacas]

Product Name: Birdicorn Divot Tool
Product Type: Ball mark fixer/divot repair tool
Product Website/URL: https://birdicorn.com
Cost: $20

Ratings (out of 5):
Quality: 5
Value: 4
Effectiveness: 5
Durability: 4
Esthetic Appeal: 4
Usefulness: 5

---

My Member Review

 

I generally carry two things in my front right pocket: a ball marker (often a TST ball marker), and a divot repair tool (often a thin metal one from the USGA or Lake View, or US Kids Golf, actually).

This works fine, except for some occasional light clinking together, and I really appreciate the divot repair tools (ball mark repair tools) that I use: they're thin and do their job well without tearing up the greens:

So to be honest I wasn't necessarily looking to try out the Birdicorn ball mark repair tool. It looked thick, it looked clunky, and I generally don't like "attached" ball markers - to my hat, to my repair tool, etc.

But at least some of those suppositions were wrong, and I now enjoy carrying the all-in-one tool.

The Birdicorn purports to do six or seven things:

1. Ball mark holder
2. Ball mark fixer
3. Bottle opener
4. Ball line stencil
5. Club/Cigar rest
6. Putt alignment aid
7. Groove cleaner

Let's take a look at each of those, briefly.

Ball Mark Holder
The ball mark held by the Birdicorn is a round, almost quarter-sized ball marker. It's thick enough to provide an edge so you can easily slide it off the magnetized back side of the Birdicorn tool, but not so thick as to be unwieldy. The marker itself is decorated with a different logo on each side - if you can remember which one is which, you can flip it over and use one to remind you that you moved your mark to the side off of someone's line or something. I prefer the smaller bird, rather than the thicker, heavier bird, personally.

The magnets are sufficiently strong that, after being annoyed at having to get out my Birdicorn the first several times to put the marker on it, I eventually just started throwing my marker into the pocket and trusting my walking to affix the marker to the magnets. This works the vast majority of the time.

Ball Mark Fixer
To be honest, if the Birdicorn did a poor job of this, I'd throw it out or give it away to a friend who plays mostly at poor golf courses and who enjoys drinking bottles of beer or something. I use this function of my ball mark repair tool more than anything else, and it's the most important. I can play golf using a tee as my ball marker, for example: I despise playing golf and not feeling I'm taking good care of the course by fixing any ball marks I see (or create).

Fortunately, it does a great job of repairing ball marks. As you can see in the image below, the tines are very thin. From the topic linked above, the best repair tools are thin and have the right amount of separation between the tines. Their job is to push some soil around, not to rip up the ground or create large holes.

The ball mark repair functions of the Birdicorn are great. The tool slides into even firm turf smoothly, and the tines are sturdy enough not to bend or twist in the ground. They push the soil around without excessive tearing, and properly used, leave virtually no sign of their use after a repair.

The one thing my preferred tools might do a slightly better job of is coring out an old improperly repaired ball mark - the more angled, slightly smaller tines of my USGA ball mark repair tool do a better job of that. Once cored I will push the sides of the grass in to repair the ball mark.

Bottle Opener
Incomplete. Honestly I don't remember the last time I had to open a bottle. Actually, I take that back - it was at the NCAA National Championships in May. I used the side of a metal fence instead. I'm not big on opening bottles (most things I drink on the golf course have a screw top or a flip top… like a water bottle).

Ball Line Stencil
I lined a ball just to say I used the feature, but I don't regularly put lines on my golf balls. The impression, the "dimple" in the Birdicorn is pretty shallow. It has to be or the Birdicorn itself would be so much thicker. But this thinness means it is only truly against the side of a ball for five dimples or so, with the edges starting to pull away from the ball. My line came out "okay" but if you're the type that loves to draw lines on your golf ball, particularly if you like LONG lines on your golf ball, the Birdicorn should be sufficient in a pinch, but the half-ball plastic tools or Tin Cup type products are still likely your best bet.

Club/Cigar Rest
This is one of the things the Birdicorn does best. I love my USGA tool and all, but at the same time, it generally stinks for this. It's just too narrow, and if you're not super gentle putting the club down with the tool oriented just so… your club can slide off and your grips can get wet regardless.

The Birdicorn is wide enough to reasonably well support and catch and hold the grip even at the thicker end, and the tines are not angled like most repair tools, so it seems less likely to tip over under the weight of a club in softer soils. Even the bottle opener "nub" helps to stabilize the Birdicorn from tipping over sideways.

I don't often set my clubs on my ball marker (because I don't often play when it's quite that wet out), but the dewsweepers and avid players will appreciate the functionality here.

Putt Alignment Aid
Let's just say this one's a stretch. To do this they want you to put the rounded part of the top of the Birdicorn against your ball on the putting green as your ball marker, and then use the line stencil as an alignment aid to help you line up your putt. It's like the lines on the Scotty Cameron tool/marker, like the lines on my TST ball markers, etc. But it has the other "stuff" attached to it, and lacks the slightly diagonal lines to match.

Groove Cleaner
The tines are thin and strong enough to clean most grooves, and do so pretty well. To be honest I almost never have caked in dirt; I scrub my grooves with a brush and wipe them with a towel after nearly every shot. I had to borrow a friend's wedge to test this out, but it sufficiently got out even pretty old dirt from the grooves, and did so without scratching or otherwise marring the club, or altering the groove depth or width or shape, like the groove sharpening tools can do.

Overall

Look, let's not overthink this. It's a ball mark repair tool with a magnet attached to hold a ball marker. It does its primary jobs (plural) really well, and likely opens bottles too. If you don't routinely lose your ball mark repair tools, the Birdicorn comes highly recommended. If you're looking for some great tee gifts for your next event, the Birdicorn would make a great gift. It comes in a bunch of colors, with different paint colors on the ball marker, so you can be sure to choose a ball marker and repair tool color combo to suit your needs.

[boogielicious]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

Product Name: Birdicorn Divot Tool
Product Type: Ball mark fixer/divot repair tool
Product Website/URL: https://birdicorn.com
Cost: $20

Ratings (out of 5):
Quality: 5
Value: 4
Effectiveness: 5
Durability: 4
Esthetic Appeal: 4
Usefulness: 5

---

My Member Review

 

I generally carry two things in my front right pocket: a ball marker (often a TST ball marker), and a divot repair tool (often a thin metal one from the USGA or Lake View, or US Kids Golf, actually).

This works fine, except for some occasional light clinking together, and I really appreciate the divot repair tools (ball mark repair tools) that I use: they're thin and do their job well without tearing up the greens:

So to be honest I wasn't necessarily looking to try out the Birdicorn ball mark repair tool. It looked thick, it looked clunky, and I generally don't like "attached" ball markers - to my hat, to my repair tool, etc.

But at least some of those suppositions were wrong, and I now enjoy carrying the all-in-one tool.

The Birdicorn purports to do six or seven things:

1. Ball mark holder
2. Ball mark fixer
3. Bottle opener
4. Ball line stencil
5. Club/Cigar rest
6. Putt alignment aid
7. Groove cleaner

Let's take a look at each of those, briefly.

Ball Mark Holder
The ball mark held by the Birdicorn is a round, almost quarter-sized ball marker. It's thick enough to provide an edge so you can easily slide it off the magnetized back side of the Birdicorn tool, but not so thick as to be unwieldy. The marker itself is decorated with a different logo on each side - if you can remember which one is which, you can flip it over and use one to remind you that you moved your mark to the side off of someone's line or something. I prefer the smaller bird, rather than the thicker, heavier bird, personally.

The magnets are sufficiently strong that, after being annoyed at having to get out my Birdicorn the first several times to put the marker on it, I eventually just started throwing my marker into the pocket and trusting my walking to affix the marker to the magnets. This works the vast majority of the time.

Ball Mark Fixer
To be honest, if the Birdicorn did a poor job of this, I'd throw it out or give it away to a friend who plays mostly at poor golf courses and who enjoys drinking bottles of beer or something. I use this function of my ball mark repair tool more than anything else, and it's the most important. I can play golf using a tee as my ball marker, for example: I despise playing golf and not feeling I'm taking good care of the course by fixing any ball marks I see (or create).

Fortunately, it does a great job of repairing ball marks. As you can see in the image below, the tines are very thin. From the topic linked above, the best repair tools are thin and have the right amount of separation between the tines. Their job is to push some soil around, not to rip up the ground or create large holes.

The ball mark repair functions of the Birdicorn are great. The tool slides into even firm turf smoothly, and the tines are sturdy enough not to bend or twist in the ground. They push the soil around without excessive tearing, and properly used, leave virtually no sign of their use after a repair.

The one thing my preferred tools might do a slightly better job of is coring out an old improperly repaired ball mark - the more angled, slightly smaller tines of my USGA ball mark repair tool do a better job of that. Once cored I will push the sides of the grass in to repair the ball mark.

Bottle Opener
Incomplete. Honestly I don't remember the last time I had to open a bottle. Actually, I take that back - it was at the NCAA National Championships in May. I used the side of a metal fence instead. I'm not big on opening bottles (most things I drink on the golf course have a screw top or a flip top… like a water bottle).

Ball Line Stencil
I lined a ball just to say I used the feature, but I don't regularly put lines on my golf balls. The impression, the "dimple" in the Birdicorn is pretty shallow. It has to be or the Birdicorn itself would be so much thicker. But this thinness means it is only truly against the side of a ball for five dimples or so, with the edges starting to pull away from the ball. My line came out "okay" but if you're the type that loves to draw lines on your golf ball, particularly if you like LONG lines on your golf ball, the Birdicorn should be sufficient in a pinch, but the half-ball plastic tools or Tin Cup type products are still likely your best bet.

Club/Cigar Rest
This is one of the things the Birdicorn does best. I love my USGA tool and all, but at the same time, it generally stinks for this. It's just too narrow, and if you're not super gentle putting the club down with the tool oriented just so… your club can slide off and your grips can get wet regardless.

The Birdicorn is wide enough to reasonably well support and catch and hold the grip even at the thicker end, and the tines are not angled like most repair tools, so it seems less likely to tip over under the weight of a club in softer soils. Even the bottle opener "nub" helps to stabilize the Birdicorn from tipping over sideways.

I don't often set my clubs on my ball marker (because I don't often play when it's quite that wet out), but the dewsweepers and avid players will appreciate the functionality here.

Putt Alignment Aid
Let's just say this one's a stretch. To do this they want you to put the rounded part of the top of the Birdicorn against your ball on the putting green as your ball marker, and then use the line stencil as an alignment aid to help you line up your putt. It's like the lines on the Scotty Cameron tool/marker, like the lines on my TST ball markers, etc. But it has the other "stuff" attached to it, and lacks the slightly diagonal lines to match.

Groove Cleaner
The tines are thin and strong enough to clean most grooves, and do so pretty well. To be honest I almost never have caked in dirt; I scrub my grooves with a brush and wipe them with a towel after nearly every shot. I had to borrow a friend's wedge to test this out, but it sufficiently got out even pretty old dirt from the grooves, and did so without scratching or otherwise marring the club, or altering the groove depth or width or shape, like the groove sharpening tools can do.

Overall

Look, let's not overthink this. It's a ball mark repair tool with a magnet attached to hold a ball marker. It does its primary jobs (plural) really well, and likely opens bottles too. If you don't routinely lose your ball mark repair tools, the Birdicorn comes highly recommended. If you're looking for some great tee gifts for your next event, the Birdicorn would make a great gift. It comes in a bunch of colors, with different paint colors on the ball marker, so you can be sure to choose a ball marker and repair tool color combo to suit your needs.

Thanks for the review. Are the tines sharp enough to poke a hole in your pocket? I ask this because I have had ones do this.

[iacas]

4 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Thanks for the review. Are the tines sharp enough to poke a hole in your pocket? I ask this because I have had ones do this.

No. Not at all.

I also forgot to attach this picture.