The frustrations of caring for the golf course

By Paul Gueorgieff

Golf is a frustrating game.

And I am not talking about how form fluctuates from one game to another, one shot to another.

What I am talking about is divots, pitch marks and unraked bunkers.

Club members always blame green fee visitors for such demeanours but I have found members can be just as guilty.

I sometimes wish all our greens had cameras on them to identify the un-repaired pitch mark culprits.

I would repair one to six pitch marks on almost every green. Some of the pitch marks are small but that remains no excuse. Some pitch marks are big and blindly obvious. That really annoys me when they go un-repaired.

A couple of months ago one of our greens had a divot in it. Yes, a divot. Someone had clearly swung a club in anger and taken the divot you would find on the tee of a par three hole. I was appalled.

And even worse story was years ago when I played with my club’s then president.

He missed a short putt and then took a huge swipe at the ball in anger. His swipe missed and what was left was a divot right next to the hole.

I couldn’t believe it. This was the club president.

I felt my face turn bright red in embarrassment. Yes, I was the one that was embarrassed.

Here I was playing with a guy who took a divot in the green right next to the hole and the guy was the club president. Shameful. Absolutely shameful.

The president guy never said a word as he made a feeble attempt to repair the damage.

I always repair my own divots on the fairway, or the rough, and I generally find most golfers I play with do the same. That pleases me.

But there are still divots — and some of them are big divots. I suspect these are made by casual golfers who simply don’t care. They are the scourge of the golf course.

I sometimes wish all our fairways had cameras on them to identify the culprits.

Bunkers. Oh dear. We do we start?

Once again I am highly frustrated when I come across unraked, or poorly raked, bunkers. It is not unusual for me to rake a bunker, even though my ball is on the green.

I remember playing a golf course in the Gold Coast in Queensland some years ago. I played in the afternoon when most green fee visitors played.

On one hole I went into a bunker and I could not believe what I saw. The beach at Surfers’ Paradise was smoother than the bunker. I probably sent five minutes raking the bunker.

But wait, there’s more. When I was passing back the same hole a few holes later I saw a guy play a shot from that very bunker.

He was about to walk away from the bunker without raking it until I yelled at him. He sheepishly went back and made a modest attempt to rake it.

I sometimes wish all our bunkers had cameras on them to identify the culprits.

On another matter, do you repair your divots on a tee? If not. why not? Why should you repair a divot on the fairway and not repair a divot on a tee?

My apologies for a column full of frustration. But I do get over it when having a beer or a wine at the club bar with my golfing friends