divots

Question
while watching the LPGA and PGA golfers hit ther iron shots while tking huge divots what doeas the coures do to keep this area from turning into a big divot hole after every round.

Answer
Larry,

Great observation.  On many par 4 holes the landing area does turn into a big divot area.  By Saturday and Sunday the pictures from the blimp show that every new shot coming into the landing area is like entering a mine field.  You have to be somewhat lucky to have your ball avoid an old divot.

The maintenance staff at the course follow the last group playing each day with sand and divot mix.  They spend considerable time repairing each divot on every hole so that the next wave of players will have decent lies the next day.  They fill the divots with sand as best they can.  But there is no question that there is a rather vast area of bad lies awaiting the next day's players on many par 4's.  It is especially bad if the hole has a hill that funnels drives down to the bottom of a hill.  The low area acts as a collection area for drives and gets very beat up after a couple of days.

Best wishes,

Paul Dolman
PGA Golf Professional