NCGA Area of Emphasis- Daily Maintenance Operations: Fairway Divots

One of the many weekly tasks performed at TPC Stonebrae is the filling of fairway divots. Now this may seem like a minuscule task, but it is actual a very important one. There are several reasons why do this, from a maintenance standpoint it helps the fairways recover faster and also ensures a good playing surface. We usually fill divots twice a week in the afternoon.



This photo is an example of a fairway divot taken on the fifth fairway, in a area that receives a lot of play.



The first step for the guys doing fairway divot mix is to prepare the mix itself. This is done in the back of the cart and the mix ratio's are 8 shovels of a soil mix to 2 shovels of Perennial Rye grass seed.  The soil mix we use has provided great results with helping the grass seed germinate, the mix contains sand (20%), soil(70%), and peat moss(10%). After the cart is filled the guys are ready to start, they will also bring 5 gallon buckets with them so they can walk the fairways and fill every divot. Having a cart full of a prepaired mix makes it easy to fill the buckets back up when they run out.

                                         



This photo shows one of the guys dropping sand into a divot, the key here is to put just enough mix in the divot so that its barely below the level of the existing turf. This is important because the fairway mower will scalp anything that is too high, making it hard to establish any grass in that divot. Also you don't want it to be to low as it will leave a depression and uneven playing surface.



This photo illustrates the second step which is to smooth the divot, in this case with his foot. Which is usually a pretty fast and effective way to level out a fairway divot.

This photo shows the divot after it was filled and leveled.

Since the guys walk the entire length of the fairway they will usually bring two carts, park one at the beginning of the fairway and then they will take the second cart with the mix and start at the end of the fairway. This way when they finish filling the divots  they can  drive the cart they dropped off back to the cart with the mix, which is more efficient.