Unfixed Ball Marks Are Officially Out Of Control

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

While this issue has always existed to some extent, the rampant increase of unfixed ball marks in the past few years has officially gotten out of control.

It’s obvious to me—and my recent playing partners have unanimously agreed—that the basic etiquette of repairing your pitch mark has fallen by the wayside.

It’s blatantly disrespectful to fellow golfers, and it’s even more egregious when you consider that the superintendent and maintenance staff have to make up for the carelessness.

Quite frankly, I’ve had enough.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m on board with many of the new-school approaches to recreational golf. I love a relaxed dress code and I don’t mind music on the course as long as it’s at a reasonable volume. I adore short courses and alternative formats to the game.

And while I’ll grit my teeth through the block letter hats, jam-packed courses and the Barstool-ification/bro culture golf has seen since the pandemic, I’m understanding that some of these elements are tradeoffs for surging popularity. At the end of the day, more people are playing.

It’s a far better result than courses shutting their doors left and right.

But the line has to be drawn somewhere. My line is when golfers take a middle finger to fundamental etiquette principles of the game.

Etiquette can be a scary “elitist” word in golf, but all I am saying is that you should respect other people on the course.

And, at the absolute bare minimum, you should respect the course itself.

By its nature, golf is a game where you leave traces of yourself behind. The most basic terms of agreement we have as golfers is that we will do our best to limit and repair the traces.

It’s like when you are five years old and playing with legos: you clean up the mess you made.

A round of golf doesn’t ask us to do that much when it comes to this.

We make divots which should be replaced, filled in with sand or left alone depending on the region.

We go into bunkers which should be raked so the next person doesn’t end up in a footprint.

And we repair our ball marks every time we make one.

Out of the three of these, ball marks are the most important. Everyone should do all three without even blinking but ball marks are easily the most critical to repair.

Divots are taken on large swaths of turf and golfers rarely end up in them. An unranked bunker is ridiculous but the vast majority of recreational golfers will take the ball out of the footprint and move along with their day.

Ball marks? They can affect every single player on every single hole.

Nowadays, you get up to a green—even at nice courses—and it has been peppered with untouched ball marks.

If I’m playing alone and there is nobody behind me, I’ll take a few minutes and replace a handful of them. On some courses, I could fix 20 or 30 on a single green.

When I was growing up, my dad told me that you should always fix at least one more ball mark than you made per green. If you missed the green, fix one. If you hit the green, fix two. That way, the green is always slightly better after you’ve played.

It only takes a matter of seconds and it isn’t a complicated procedure. Take a tee or divot tool and press in from all sides—don’t lift up because that damages the roots. When you’re finished, gently tap it down with a putter.

It’s just a matter of respect for other people.

According to the USGA, “unrepaired ball marks can take weeks to heal, during which time they can cause balls to bounce off line. The damage to the putting surface is also an entry point for weeds that can cause serious problems.”

If a ball mark is repaired correctly, that area of turf will spring back to its full life within hours or a few days.

There are times when you can fix a mark that is on your line but there is only so much fixing you can do. At a certain point, a green surface is what it is.

If everyone fixed their ball marks, the whole experience of putting would be a lot more enjoyable. Greens would be better and more putts would be holed.

This isn’t exclusive to municipal courses, resorts or any other type of facility. Some private clubs I’ve been to are among the worst offenders. This is just about every golf course.

The golfers who do repair ball marks now are outnumbered by those who don’t even think about it.

It’s an uphill battle, but please do your part. If someone is new to the game, educate them.

Make greens smooth again.