I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks at Pebble Beach Golf Links for the U.S. Women’s Open and while the views are certainly impressive, the maintenance team’s overall attention to detail was something to enjoy as well. I arrived a week before the championship and the tee sheet was filled with resort play right up until the Sunday leading into championship week. One concern from an agronomic standpoint – with such heavy play leading into a national championship – was the amount of ball marks on putting greens. After walking all the greens and seeing very few ball marks, I had to know what superintendent Bubba Wright and his team were doing to manage what could have been a serious issue.
The Pebble process for repairing ball marks is unique due to the custom tool they use to make the repairs. The tool is an ice pick on one side with a 1/2 inch, side-eject hollow tine on the other. Staff members use the aeration tine to remove the damaged turf at the center of the old ball mark, then flip the tool over and use the ice pick to mend the surrounding turf together. The result is a smooth surface with no brown turf to be seen.
At Pebble Beach Golf Links, each putting green mower is also tasked with section maintenance, which includes repairing ball marks. This process has proven to be simple, efficient and effective and may help you keep up with ball marks at your course. Their Poa annua greens were in excellent condition for the championship, with very few ball marks to be found!
Central Region Agronomists:
Zach Nicoludis, regional director – znicoludis@usga.org
Paul Jacobs, agronomist – pjacobs@usga.org