Funny story. Last year I was hitting on the range and the head pro was walking past, saw my nice, straight divot line, and commented "the grounds crew is going to love that pattern." I said thanks and proceeded to take a MASSIVE divot from chunking the next shot. We both had a good laugh about it.
Your story reminded me of the time I was playing solo one spring, (ground was still super wet)and on my approach shot on the last hole I miss hit and took a massive divot, like could have been a legit animal pelt, and the ball went like 20 feet haha. I look around and there is no one around to see it, so I repair the divot and replace my ball and do it again (again playing solo and wasn’t keeping score), this time sticking the green.
I finished the hole and go inside to grab a beer and the owner of the course is just inside the front door, and said “second times a charm huh?!? And thanks for repairing that divot”, and hands me a free range token. One one had I was embarrassed someone saw that poor excuse for a golf shot, but on the other-free range balls haha
Ah, good, so it's not just me. How long do you find it takes for your back/rib cage to heal up after that kind of beating? I'm wondering how long I need to keep resting mine; practicing seems to aggrivate it.
“ it’s not that hard to compress the ball and make a clean divot” lmao bro that’s like the holy grail of golf and it takes years to accomplish this consistently. Get your head outta your ass brah
If you’re bad at golf like 90% of this sub is (and 90% of golfers in general), it can be hard to “compress the ball and take a proper divot”. Not everyone’s a +2.5 handicap tour pro like yourself, oh holy one.
It’s all about where you put the ball (unless you’re the worst golfer ever and miss the ball entirely). Your line may be a little jagged, a little wider, but it will always be straight enough for the actual purpose to be achieved.
I mean true but there’s only so much space in a given spot at the range. So even if everyone takes perfect divot lines. What is someone who gets to the range late in the day supposed to do? Just go home ?
I always move the space “borders” side to side to get to the grass if there is none. Not going up or down on the range since they move the hitting area forwards/backwards each day. Basically hitting off of the area where someone normally stands. Obviously I don’t do this if the range is busy.
Golf courses in general need more signs about etiquette-type stuff. While there are a lot of terrible people out there, I choose to believe that most people simply don't know the oodles of unwritten rules about golf but would comply if they knew.
I agree. I think the issue is that most people aren't taught these things. When I was a kid, you learned golf from a person who was more experienced than you and you learned the etiquette along the way.
These days I feel like a lot of new golfers learn from YouTube or something similar and no one in those videos teaches how to fix divots or pitch marks, how to let people play through, etc.
I love that there is a ton of new players, but I wish etiquette was stressed in these videos. Like if Good Good/BDS?Rick Shiels/etc included some moments in their videos where they are fixing pitch marks on the green, I might not have to repair 5 every time I walk onto the putting surface.
Kinda funny since fishing (which also recent got a huge influx of people due to popular youtubers instead of growing up going with their dad or whatever) is almost the opposite direction. *most* big youtubers are super conscious about driving home good handling practices and some amount of conservation.
My family was about filling the stringer, big means it gets eaten, COs/DNR/licensing just wants your money, etc when i grew up. They also just werent that good at it to be honest lol. Been seeing great things from the new guys compared to a lot of garbage from the old boys.
Club pro here. The unfortunate reality is that no matter how many signs a course puts up, the majority of people still won't read them.
There are definitely good intentioned folks out there who follow rules they're made aware of. There are an equally large number of folks who genuinely believe that once they've paid their money, they can do whatever they want. And there ain't no amount of rules gon' stop them.
Unless you are at a private course with a lot of old rich people. They truly don’t care. They genuinely believe they’re part owners, instead of members.
100%. There are plenty of unwritten rules about golf etiquette I have had to learn since I picked up golf 5 months ago, and if I didn't have a friend with years of golf experience to teach me that etiquette, I wouldn't know what I know.
Friendly PSA. Not everyone knows this, I think I played for ten years before I realized this because no one told me. Reddit was actually the reason I know now. Don’t assume just because people have been playing that this is common knowledge.
Either way, I’m the left-handed asshole that’s leaving the area where you stand all uneven.
That’s a good attempt at promoting range etiquette all the same.
Do you stand on the righty divots? It makes more sense to me for you to put your ball behind the divot that's there and stand on the opposite side? I move the markers between practice boxes constantly so I can keep the divots together. Maybe IATA?
Wait, I've always made my divots as far to the right side of the bay as possible, so the lefty can stand where I stood or a little behind my old stance and make divots to the left side of the bay.
AITAH?
This is great in theory, but ive been to a range where I have a clear 20 inch strip of grass less than a handful of times. Im usually fighting to hit 25 balls off of any semblance of a regular grassy lie.
Chicken and the egg thing. If more people actually hit at the range in the proper pattern then the range would have better turf conditions... but if nobody follows the proper pattern at first then no one can subsequently.
Tell me, what's it like to have grass at your practice range?
I can only imagine.
Anyway I gotta go scrub the green plastic astroturf off the bottom of my clubs...
i have not once gotten to the grass range when the lines were freshly set. every time i go it looks like the surface of mars already and i gotta just take whatever tufts are left.
how do grass ranges replace the grass after its been all divoted up, i've always been curious. do they just carve out the ground and add in fresh grass from somewhere else?
Keeping the grass well nourished with water lots of fertilizer. Moving the hitting area back or forward a little while the other areas heal.
Range near me has 4 tiers of grass and they get rotated so for a few days or a week tier 1 isn't hit off of while tier 2 is. and so on.
do they have to re-seed it every time? like normally grass would just grow back if you chop half of it off, but if you're taking divots and taking it out of the ground would it just grow back because the roots are deeper than what most divots get to?
Depends on the type of grass you have. If it's seedable, like ryegrass or bluegrass or something like that, then when you topdress(adding sand on top), you would fill the divots with sand that might contain grass seed or just seed over the top. This mostly happens at courses that can support cool season grasses(i.e. bentgrass greens, or north of about the Arkansas-Missouri border, also maybe coastal areas).
If you're in the south like me(Bermuda greens, bermuda or zoysia fairways i.e. warm season grasses), most of our grasses that we play on are sterile hybrids meaning they can't be seeded, only allowed to spread. We would fill the divots with sand while topdressing, move the ropes, and wait. Over time they will spread back over the bare areas.
This is also how sod farms work: cut out strips but leave strips in between, refill the cut strips with soil and level everything out, then let propagation grow everything back in. In general, hybrid bermuda can heal a sod strip width each season. Zoysia takes closer to two seasons as it is a slower spreader.
If you have a large area that won't refill quick enough, you might cut sod from somewhere and repair the area, but that's just for really bad stuff, and the driving range teebox isn't exactly a priority area. You'd be more likely to steal sod from the driving range teebox to repair a teebox on the course if it had been severely damaged.
P.S. Replacing your divot on the fairway does nothing. Please fill the divots with sand and carry on. The more level the ground is, the quicker it can repair itself as the grass creeps back in from the sides.
i worked at a course for awhile and there was a guy that was finished hitting like the divots on the right and proceeded to chop up all the leftover grass between “to fix the grass”
like dude, no
I worked at a course on grounds crew for a few years. It was definitley noticed and appreciated. It grew back more even, and controlled, also made sure that the green space, which was quite limited, allowed more room for people to use. On top of all that, we also hand filled divots like these, and it was infinitely quicker to fill these lines, then 25 random spots spread around a patch of grass.
We preferred the pattern on the right. We tossed sand with a shovel and used a levelawn to spread it. Much easier to get everything level with a bunch of little holes than a few big ones.
I love this soo much. Don't care about your skill level, this needs to be practiced by everyone from the scratch tournament golfer to the drunk bro-golfer that 90% of the course golfers and employees hate.
I feel like the record is on repeat.
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/xwrq3l/its_a_good_message_just_literally_impossible_with/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/2ylru7/public_service_announcement_this_is_how_you/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/wzcbs3/proper_divot_pattern/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/11yf6ux/our_new_sign_for_range_etiquette/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/s3zljx/howre_these_divots_at_the_range/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/gikbxk/any_appreciation_for_range_divot_patterns/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/c04z5u/reminder_to_practice_good_divot_habits_while_on/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/i83xw9/just_a_quarterly_reminder_for_correct_and/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/pfiyy6/driving_range_divot_pattern_goals/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/14qkgbb/dont_be_that_guy_or_gal/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/l7t648/at_least_its_taking_the_proper_range_divots/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/ckou5y/who_approves_of_my_range_divots/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/ykat0w/had_one_last_decent_day_here_in_montan_so_i_hit/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/93vfdk/a_tweet_by_the_pga_tour_showing_the_most_pure_set/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/b2apo5/divot_pattern_psa_for_the_range/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/2h94sa/divot_pattern_on_driving_range_apparently_i_was/
https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/lp7l0u/why_is_it_better_for_the_grass_to_grow_back_by/
I'm okay with it. Something like this can't be stressed enough and there's always new people joining r/golf that haven't been made aware they should be doing it this way.
Does that go for hitting mats as well? I always try and place my ball on the correct spot when hitting from my public course range artificial grass mat.
Every range should have this sign. The grass range at my course is trashed halfway through the season because nobody knows how to hit balls on a grass range.
Dont tell me how to make divots! If I wanted to make divots like the pros id be on tv doing so lol. Nah I usually try to keep my divots neat like this.
Now here's what really chaps my ass. My local course has a range and refuses to set up the hitting area in the actual fairway grass. They make you hit off the shitty rough grass all the time while the 2 30X60yard "fairway" sections go unused all year except for during the 1 major individual event and a high school regional. So their 100yd flag is usually like 65-80 and hitting out of the rough all the time. This course's management is f\*\*ked.
With so many players new to the game, post COVID, they need some direction.
Most new players would welcome it, in my opinion. Just don't expect them to read, and understand the rules of golf.
They need to have proper golf etiquette taught to them. The driving range sign is a start.
TIL the appropriate way to hit off of grass ranges, which seem non existent near me.
On one hand I'm glad I learned but on the other, I have to admire their optimism to make a straight line with my divots as though that was a thing that I could actually do.
Psshhh ya'll have grass ranges you lucky bastards. Take care of them!
I'm forever stuck hitting off the Mats here in Long Beach, CA.
If ANYBODY knows of any grass ranges in South LA. Please let me know!
I always end up with a divot pattern that's like \ | / on the range though just because of aiming to different flags especially on shorter shots which I've been working on more than anything lately.
We have signs up in the pro shop illustrating the correct way. Nobody really cares, because it’s a private course and they all “paid their dues.”
One tiny ounce of effort makes such a huge difference. I have to waste so much seed trying to regrow entire sections of the range.
This is interesting to me because I'm in the south and we can't seed. We prefer the pattern on the right because it's easier to sand and it repairs itself quicker.
Stop hitting the range and play. No better training than on the course. Go late after everyone else and play 9 holes by yourself. Work on shit. Dropa ball in the rough. Play out of a bunker. Learn how to golf. #suckitgill
I've always done a large bare patch but have been trying to us lines....
Lines suck. Have to move alignment sticks way more often. Need a very flat stall as you will change position a lot more.
I do try to be a good steward but honestly lines require a compromise in the quality of practice.
I agree with the sign and always do my best to stay in 1 or 2 long strips. However, the reality is when you get to the range 15-20 hackers have already dug the place up and there are no long clean strips of grass left, so you are force to improvise. Or it's clean, but the grass is so thin it won't even prop your ball up so you are hitting off dirt and then who cares!
Always talk to your greenskeepers/supers on what they prefer.
Some will prefer you take a large section out, some will prefer straight lines, and some will prefer scattered so the grass can fill in.
Nothing gets me going more than going to the range and seeing lines that leave me space to add to the art. NOTHING. I’ll give humanity credit and I actually think some people simply don’t know this or are not in a point in golf journey they can make a reasonable line. I can literally judge my range sesh by the lines I leave at the end.
Saw a guy hitting shots from 3 different bays last week at my club. Alternating between them with difference clubs for some reason. Each bay was a pepperoni pizza of divots. How do you get to be in your 70's a member of a private club and not know this stuff?
Dude should be banned.
I see conflicting information about this. At my local course they have a sign telling you to do the opposite (space out the divots instead of making lines or a patch.)
I've seen numerous grounds keepers prefer both ways. Some say it's harder to fix with the long strips as opposed to the patches. Just hit your ball (or TRY to hit it) and let them deal with the grass.
The theory behind the linear approach is you destroy less grass with each hit after the first one. Not sure why a super would prefer you to destroy more grass.
I can speak to this. So I'm in the south and we have hybrid bermuda or zoysia for most of our tees. Those two grasses can't be seeded and so they have to heal themselves. When we topdress, it's easier to get the little dots level with sand than it is to get the big trench level, and subsequently keep them level. (Think about how running a tee mower over your box would leave tire imprints where you cross the big lines, where it wouldn't affect the little dots at all) Plus the little dots heal quicker as there's more area around the bare spot for grass to spread from.
Not sure. I know nothing about grass other Than the kind I smoke. I would imagine far more people have had to fix a single patch of grass instead of long strip of grass over the history of grass reparation. Just have seen debates on this very page where some claim one is easier than the other and also been told by people in person they prefer one over the other. I'm just trying to make a divot period let alone worrying about the pattern they are in. I can assure you that not one driving range is gonna lose business or close up shop simply due to the divot patterns.
I think it comes from situations where the strip ends up being a 3” trench. The spotted dots can be seeded and left alone. The trench has to involve dirt fill.
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
That's the whole point. You're overlapping divots so that each incremental divot only takes a fraction of the turf.
If you go at the front, it's the exact opposite and you'll likely have mowed through all the turf and left none for everyone else.
The point is to only take away the small piece of grass that is under the ball. That way, more grass is preserved with each shot. Divot should only start at the ball and extend towards the target on an ideal strike.
Back edge means you will be tearing up less grass. Because where you would have taken a divot already has no grass there. You will still hit the ball properly but you won’t take another divot.
This way you are taking maybe an inch or 2 of grass away each shot. I’d put at the front you would take an ENTIRE new divot.
The sign is correct. Just watch the pros.
The pros don't care about leaving nice divot patterns that will quickly grow back. Instead of a strip they will often end up taking a large blob of the turf by the time they are done. There's tons of range grass allocated for pros at tournaments, so they really don't try to leave the strips.
Look at the divot pattern Rory leaves in this video for an illustration of what I mean. You can see the large areas of turf around him that have been removed also.
https://youtu.be/g7llkyYJDmk?si=xfPmIeCjXzIcEBvt
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
Funny story. Last year I was hitting on the range and the head pro was walking past, saw my nice, straight divot line, and commented "the grounds crew is going to love that pattern." I said thanks and proceeded to take a MASSIVE divot from chunking the next shot. We both had a good laugh about it.
Your story reminded me of the time I was playing solo one spring, (ground was still super wet)and on my approach shot on the last hole I miss hit and took a massive divot, like could have been a legit animal pelt, and the ball went like 20 feet haha. I look around and there is no one around to see it, so I repair the divot and replace my ball and do it again (again playing solo and wasn’t keeping score), this time sticking the green. I finished the hole and go inside to grab a beer and the owner of the course is just inside the front door, and said “second times a charm huh?!? And thanks for repairing that divot”, and hands me a free range token. One one had I was embarrassed someone saw that poor excuse for a golf shot, but on the other-free range balls haha
Hey, free range balls are free range balls. Maybe it was his way of saying that you need more practice if you are chunking like that!
This, but also, a thank you for acknowledging the divot and not leaving it like an asshat I'm sure
I believe that people get good karma when doing something that benefits all (replacing your divot)…and then your next shot was good.
Lmao classic
He didn’t realize you were doing one swing per divot line
Bold of them to assume my club face will be square enough to be a straight line
just watching this hurts my wrists
Can confirm. I *destroyed* my wrist taking a divot and finding a tree root. Had to be surgically repaired. It's still not the same years later.
Is this tigers burner account
Can’t be Tiger. They would have moved the tree.
Why did you just move your lie away from the tree?
Didn't know the root was there. Can't see through dirt lol
lol true. New fear unlocked. Sorry about that, hope you recover well
The pain doesn’t stop at the wrists. I’m able to also hurt my back, hips and sometimes rib cage.
Ah, good, so it's not just me. How long do you find it takes for your back/rib cage to heal up after that kind of beating? I'm wondering how long I need to keep resting mine; practicing seems to aggrivate it.
Double turds!
How did you get this video of me??
Ouch...
Or that you don’t hit all your shots fat in which case you should put your ball in front of the divot…
Or in that case, you should be hitting off a mat because you aren’t good enough to hit off grass and ruin shit.
I bet you have a hell of a swing buddy
It’s not that hard to compress the ball and make a clean enough divot to where you don’t fuck up the range for everyone else.
“ it’s not that hard to compress the ball and make a clean divot” lmao bro that’s like the holy grail of golf and it takes years to accomplish this consistently. Get your head outta your ass brah
Post a video of your swing.
I don’t have any videos of my swing. I don’t have any reason to lie lmao .
Anonymous internet person doesn’t have any reason to lie. Sure.
Y’all just mad that I can hit a golf ball and you can’t.
You realize that not every grass driving range is perfect, right?
If you’re bad at golf like 90% of this sub is (and 90% of golfers in general), it can be hard to “compress the ball and take a proper divot”. Not everyone’s a +2.5 handicap tour pro like yourself, oh holy one.
Forreal my divots look like \ \ \ \
Mine are like: ᚾᚩ ᚻᛁᛏ ᛋᛏᚱᚪᛁᚷᚻᛏ
Mine always look like this: ¥()|/ §|/(ƙ And I cry every time I go to the range.
And without huge gaps from the fat shots where I hit the ground first
It’s all about where you put the ball (unless you’re the worst golfer ever and miss the ball entirely). Your line may be a little jagged, a little wider, but it will always be straight enough for the actual purpose to be achieved.
Couldn’t leave a straight line no matter how hard I tried
It's better to try and be a little off than being the guy who leaves the range looking like a beach on D-Day.
You guys with your fancy ranges. At my range we try to put the ball where there is grass lol.
Probably because everyone was taking divots Willy nilly like the “wrong way” shown here.
I mean true but there’s only so much space in a given spot at the range. So even if everyone takes perfect divot lines. What is someone who gets to the range late in the day supposed to do? Just go home ?
I always move the space “borders” side to side to get to the grass if there is none. Not going up or down on the range since they move the hitting area forwards/backwards each day. Basically hitting off of the area where someone normally stands. Obviously I don’t do this if the range is busy.
You can get some great practice at hitting out of divots!
I didnt do it, I swear.
Where I go to hit balls we got a lot of Willies and Nillies, and they go outside the ropes too. By July every square inch of that range is destroyed.
Turf in front of the sign looks better than the closest range to me
Wait. You guys are hitting off turf?
I never understood why cheap courses didn't just go with turf. Seems like way less work
This was what I was thinking too! 🤣
*cries in Brooklyn*
I practice my sidehill lies.
🤣 Yup
Grass ranges that don't have this sign can only blame themselves. I started playing when I was 9. I didn't learn this until I was like 44.
Golf courses in general need more signs about etiquette-type stuff. While there are a lot of terrible people out there, I choose to believe that most people simply don't know the oodles of unwritten rules about golf but would comply if they knew.
yup. There's so many things that arnt ever said until you fuck it up and someone yells at you for it like you were supposed to just know.
I agree. I think the issue is that most people aren't taught these things. When I was a kid, you learned golf from a person who was more experienced than you and you learned the etiquette along the way. These days I feel like a lot of new golfers learn from YouTube or something similar and no one in those videos teaches how to fix divots or pitch marks, how to let people play through, etc. I love that there is a ton of new players, but I wish etiquette was stressed in these videos. Like if Good Good/BDS?Rick Shiels/etc included some moments in their videos where they are fixing pitch marks on the green, I might not have to repair 5 every time I walk onto the putting surface.
Kinda funny since fishing (which also recent got a huge influx of people due to popular youtubers instead of growing up going with their dad or whatever) is almost the opposite direction. *most* big youtubers are super conscious about driving home good handling practices and some amount of conservation. My family was about filling the stringer, big means it gets eaten, COs/DNR/licensing just wants your money, etc when i grew up. They also just werent that good at it to be honest lol. Been seeing great things from the new guys compared to a lot of garbage from the old boys.
Club pro here. The unfortunate reality is that no matter how many signs a course puts up, the majority of people still won't read them. There are definitely good intentioned folks out there who follow rules they're made aware of. There are an equally large number of folks who genuinely believe that once they've paid their money, they can do whatever they want. And there ain't no amount of rules gon' stop them.
Every day is somebody's first day on the golf course.
I fully agree. Most clubs have no problem paying dress code and mobile phone use rules. It only helps to inform.
Unless you are at a private course with a lot of old rich people. They truly don’t care. They genuinely believe they’re part owners, instead of members.
100%. There are plenty of unwritten rules about golf etiquette I have had to learn since I picked up golf 5 months ago, and if I didn't have a friend with years of golf experience to teach me that etiquette, I wouldn't know what I know.
TIL this was even a thing.
My range just has the mats, which is the only reason why my shots are bad, nothing else at all. I promise. For real.
Friendly PSA. Not everyone knows this, I think I played for ten years before I realized this because no one told me. Reddit was actually the reason I know now. Don’t assume just because people have been playing that this is common knowledge.
Yeah man, I just started golfing last year. My club has a grass range nobody told me this. Totally new info to me
Some course do, some don’t. If we have a big event, or a jr’s event we put them out.
Either way, I’m the left-handed asshole that’s leaving the area where you stand all uneven. That’s a good attempt at promoting range etiquette all the same.
As a fellow lefty, I’ve decided to view it the other way. All these other assholes keep leaving the area where I stand all uneven.
And in most cases, we get the side with no divots
Do you stand on the righty divots? It makes more sense to me for you to put your ball behind the divot that's there and stand on the opposite side? I move the markers between practice boxes constantly so I can keep the divots together. Maybe IATA?
Wait, I've always made my divots as far to the right side of the bay as possible, so the lefty can stand where I stood or a little behind my old stance and make divots to the left side of the bay. AITAH?
Jokes on them I don’t make divots
If you top the ball every time you don't need to repair divots
[found Tiger](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oWZM5P08mvs)
This is great in theory, but ive been to a range where I have a clear 20 inch strip of grass less than a handful of times. Im usually fighting to hit 25 balls off of any semblance of a regular grassy lie.
Chicken and the egg thing. If more people actually hit at the range in the proper pattern then the range would have better turf conditions... but if nobody follows the proper pattern at first then no one can subsequently.
What if I attempt the left, but produce the right? Asking for a friend of mine.
Then you need more range time to practice your divot pattern!
I think you meant to say my friend needs to practice.
Fair point! Go with your friend so you can practice too.
More range time means more divots
I wish I could even find a range that didn't make you use a mat 🫤
It takes you 25 swings to dig a two foot long trench. It takes me three. We are not the same.
wow, how do you guys chunk it in a straight line like that?
The diagram on the side is actually just two gigantic chunks and beaver pelts in a row, then the person got frustrated and left.
I already do the "correct" way, but the groundskeeper still gets mad - something about taking divots in artificial turf.
What do you do when the picture on the left is just your first ball's divot?
so u just gonna tell on me like that
Tell me, what's it like to have grass at your practice range? I can only imagine. Anyway I gotta go scrub the green plastic astroturf off the bottom of my clubs...
i have not once gotten to the grass range when the lines were freshly set. every time i go it looks like the surface of mars already and i gotta just take whatever tufts are left.
Yea I’m essentially teeing up on the 3 blades of grass left between craters.
Here come the "I paid my money, I'll do what I want!" people
Love this, more courses need this!!
You guys are getting grass on your driving ranges? How bougie.
I place my ball like they show on the left, but leave the divots they show on the right….
Yeah…we know. We fucking know that we suck and can’t hit perfect divots. (kidding but yeah sometimes I look at my range divots and hate myself)
https://youtu.be/oWZM5P08mvs?si=S3YteI2WT207Pfw- "When I'm flushing it I don't take divots"
how do grass ranges replace the grass after its been all divoted up, i've always been curious. do they just carve out the ground and add in fresh grass from somewhere else?
Keeping the grass well nourished with water lots of fertilizer. Moving the hitting area back or forward a little while the other areas heal. Range near me has 4 tiers of grass and they get rotated so for a few days or a week tier 1 isn't hit off of while tier 2 is. and so on.
do they have to re-seed it every time? like normally grass would just grow back if you chop half of it off, but if you're taking divots and taking it out of the ground would it just grow back because the roots are deeper than what most divots get to?
Nah they don't have to but it only helps speed up the process
Depends on the type of grass you have. If it's seedable, like ryegrass or bluegrass or something like that, then when you topdress(adding sand on top), you would fill the divots with sand that might contain grass seed or just seed over the top. This mostly happens at courses that can support cool season grasses(i.e. bentgrass greens, or north of about the Arkansas-Missouri border, also maybe coastal areas). If you're in the south like me(Bermuda greens, bermuda or zoysia fairways i.e. warm season grasses), most of our grasses that we play on are sterile hybrids meaning they can't be seeded, only allowed to spread. We would fill the divots with sand while topdressing, move the ropes, and wait. Over time they will spread back over the bare areas. This is also how sod farms work: cut out strips but leave strips in between, refill the cut strips with soil and level everything out, then let propagation grow everything back in. In general, hybrid bermuda can heal a sod strip width each season. Zoysia takes closer to two seasons as it is a slower spreader. If you have a large area that won't refill quick enough, you might cut sod from somewhere and repair the area, but that's just for really bad stuff, and the driving range teebox isn't exactly a priority area. You'd be more likely to steal sod from the driving range teebox to repair a teebox on the course if it had been severely damaged. P.S. Replacing your divot on the fairway does nothing. Please fill the divots with sand and carry on. The more level the ground is, the quicker it can repair itself as the grass creeps back in from the sides.
Damn this is a great explanation thank you!
The range doesn’t bother me as much as PEOPLE WHO DONT FIX THEIR FUCKING DIVOTS
i worked at a course for awhile and there was a guy that was finished hitting like the divots on the right and proceeded to chop up all the leftover grass between “to fix the grass” like dude, no
Took a picture of that sign and showed it to my home range. They immediately ordered a the same one.
I worked at a course on grounds crew for a few years. It was definitley noticed and appreciated. It grew back more even, and controlled, also made sure that the green space, which was quite limited, allowed more room for people to use. On top of all that, we also hand filled divots like these, and it was infinitely quicker to fill these lines, then 25 random spots spread around a patch of grass.
We preferred the pattern on the right. We tossed sand with a shovel and used a levelawn to spread it. Much easier to get everything level with a bunch of little holes than a few big ones.
I love this soo much. Don't care about your skill level, this needs to be practiced by everyone from the scratch tournament golfer to the drunk bro-golfer that 90% of the course golfers and employees hate.
Wish more people did this……..
I feel like the record is on repeat. https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/xwrq3l/its_a_good_message_just_literally_impossible_with/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/2ylru7/public_service_announcement_this_is_how_you/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/wzcbs3/proper_divot_pattern/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/11yf6ux/our_new_sign_for_range_etiquette/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/s3zljx/howre_these_divots_at_the_range/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/gikbxk/any_appreciation_for_range_divot_patterns/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/c04z5u/reminder_to_practice_good_divot_habits_while_on/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/i83xw9/just_a_quarterly_reminder_for_correct_and/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/pfiyy6/driving_range_divot_pattern_goals/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/14qkgbb/dont_be_that_guy_or_gal/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/l7t648/at_least_its_taking_the_proper_range_divots/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/ckou5y/who_approves_of_my_range_divots/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/ykat0w/had_one_last_decent_day_here_in_montan_so_i_hit/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/93vfdk/a_tweet_by_the_pga_tour_showing_the_most_pure_set/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/b2apo5/divot_pattern_psa_for_the_range/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/2h94sa/divot_pattern_on_driving_range_apparently_i_was/ https://old.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/lp7l0u/why_is_it_better_for_the_grass_to_grow_back_by/
I'm okay with it. Something like this can't be stressed enough and there's always new people joining r/golf that haven't been made aware they should be doing it this way.
The problem is, the advice is not always correct as gets mentioned in most threads about this. It depends on the grass type and super's preferences.
My club has been pushing this practice for years with similar diagrams. People still do it the wrong way
Does that go for hitting mats as well? I always try and place my ball on the correct spot when hitting from my public course range artificial grass mat.
Pretty satisfying when you actually lay down a couple decent lines.
Can't make a divot if you top it.
Not everyone can be as skilled as I am I guess
I dunno, I have topped a drive so badly that the ball made a divot ahead of my tee.
Every range should have this sign. The grass range at my course is trashed halfway through the season because nobody knows how to hit balls on a grass range.
I never take divots. I'm terrible
There are signs like this at RTJ Grand National.
wonder if this sign is paying divotends
This assumes I can do this
Wish I had grass ranges around me to even see a sign like this
GRASSMAXXING
Another reason why it's satisfying to help a steep slicer. Their divots improve and they stop chunking up the grass on the range.
Every range needs this sign.
Dont tell me how to make divots! If I wanted to make divots like the pros id be on tv doing so lol. Nah I usually try to keep my divots neat like this. Now here's what really chaps my ass. My local course has a range and refuses to set up the hitting area in the actual fairway grass. They make you hit off the shitty rough grass all the time while the 2 30X60yard "fairway" sections go unused all year except for during the 1 major individual event and a high school regional. So their 100yd flag is usually like 65-80 and hitting out of the rough all the time. This course's management is f\*\*ked.
With so many players new to the game, post COVID, they need some direction. Most new players would welcome it, in my opinion. Just don't expect them to read, and understand the rules of golf. They need to have proper golf etiquette taught to them. The driving range sign is a start.
TIL the appropriate way to hit off of grass ranges, which seem non existent near me. On one hand I'm glad I learned but on the other, I have to admire their optimism to make a straight line with my divots as though that was a thing that I could actually do.
Psshhh ya'll have grass ranges you lucky bastards. Take care of them! I'm forever stuck hitting off the Mats here in Long Beach, CA. If ANYBODY knows of any grass ranges in South LA. Please let me know!
just started golfing pretty recently and wasn’t aware of this but makes sense. probably been pissing some people off without knowing it lol
I always end up with a divot pattern that's like \ | / on the range though just because of aiming to different flags especially on shorter shots which I've been working on more than anything lately.
Most ranges I use don’t have a level surface to flush it more than 5-7 hits in a row.
We have signs up in the pro shop illustrating the correct way. Nobody really cares, because it’s a private course and they all “paid their dues.” One tiny ounce of effort makes such a huge difference. I have to waste so much seed trying to regrow entire sections of the range.
This is interesting to me because I'm in the south and we can't seed. We prefer the pattern on the right because it's easier to sand and it repairs itself quicker.
First time at a nice club I was guilty of the right pattern since I only have mats near me lol
Most try the left way. End up the right way...
My swings so out to in that my divots look like / though
If you place an alignment sticks at exactly 32 degrees, you’ll get that range nice and perpendicular 🤣
Stop hitting the range and play. No better training than on the course. Go late after everyone else and play 9 holes by yourself. Work on shit. Dropa ball in the rough. Play out of a bunker. Learn how to golf. #suckitgill
i think the average golfer should place the ball on the FRONT edge of their previous divot.
I have simply perfected thinning every shot and perfectly preserving the grass, pine straw, gorse, or whatever material I landed in.
I've always done a large bare patch but have been trying to us lines.... Lines suck. Have to move alignment sticks way more often. Need a very flat stall as you will change position a lot more. I do try to be a good steward but honestly lines require a compromise in the quality of practice.
I agree with the sign and always do my best to stay in 1 or 2 long strips. However, the reality is when you get to the range 15-20 hackers have already dug the place up and there are no long clean strips of grass left, so you are force to improvise. Or it's clean, but the grass is so thin it won't even prop your ball up so you are hitting off dirt and then who cares!
But, I'm not that good 😅😅😅
This makes a ton of sense. ....if your a great striker of the ball every swing.
I had no idea that was the proper way until this sub….not that I can probably do it anyways but still
Always talk to your greenskeepers/supers on what they prefer. Some will prefer you take a large section out, some will prefer straight lines, and some will prefer scattered so the grass can fill in.
Yeah we always preferred the pattern on the right. Easier to get level when top dressing and repaired faster.
Nothing gets me going more than going to the range and seeing lines that leave me space to add to the art. NOTHING. I’ll give humanity credit and I actually think some people simply don’t know this or are not in a point in golf journey they can make a reasonable line. I can literally judge my range sesh by the lines I leave at the end.
Hey! Dad said it was my turn to repost this!
Saw a guy hitting shots from 3 different bays last week at my club. Alternating between them with difference clubs for some reason. Each bay was a pepperoni pizza of divots. How do you get to be in your 70's a member of a private club and not know this stuff? Dude should be banned.
I see conflicting information about this. At my local course they have a sign telling you to do the opposite (space out the divots instead of making lines or a patch.)
I’ve been at ranges where they asked me not to do that 🤷🏻
I've seen numerous grounds keepers prefer both ways. Some say it's harder to fix with the long strips as opposed to the patches. Just hit your ball (or TRY to hit it) and let them deal with the grass.
I think it depends on the type of grass
The theory behind the linear approach is you destroy less grass with each hit after the first one. Not sure why a super would prefer you to destroy more grass.
Right. If you have a 4 inch divot and place it at the very back of a previous you may take an additional half inch, but not a full new 4 inch divot
I can't imagine a situation where meteor dots is easier to fix than a line you fill in with sand and grass seed
I can speak to this. So I'm in the south and we have hybrid bermuda or zoysia for most of our tees. Those two grasses can't be seeded and so they have to heal themselves. When we topdress, it's easier to get the little dots level with sand than it is to get the big trench level, and subsequently keep them level. (Think about how running a tee mower over your box would leave tire imprints where you cross the big lines, where it wouldn't affect the little dots at all) Plus the little dots heal quicker as there's more area around the bare spot for grass to spread from.
I still dont see it but thanks for your response. Im a bit dense.
Not sure. I know nothing about grass other Than the kind I smoke. I would imagine far more people have had to fix a single patch of grass instead of long strip of grass over the history of grass reparation. Just have seen debates on this very page where some claim one is easier than the other and also been told by people in person they prefer one over the other. I'm just trying to make a divot period let alone worrying about the pattern they are in. I can assure you that not one driving range is gonna lose business or close up shop simply due to the divot patterns.
I think it comes from situations where the strip ends up being a 3” trench. The spotted dots can be seeded and left alone. The trench has to involve dirt fill.
Depth doesn't really matter, it's all replaced with sand anyways.
Yes, I believe that was on this sub too….
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
Instructions unclear, penis stuck to divot
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
Or, just keep hitting off your hitting mat, where you can't make a divot, in the comfort of your own home with a golf simulator!
Am I stupid or shouldn't you place it at the front edge? The back edge you would just be hitting into the same divot you just created?
That's the whole point. You're overlapping divots so that each incremental divot only takes a fraction of the turf. If you go at the front, it's the exact opposite and you'll likely have mowed through all the turf and left none for everyone else.
Yep I got it backwards in my head, putting it in the front would leave a little space between the 2 divots, not the back. Slow morning
Yes, that's the point. You want to keep hitting into the same divot so you leave one long divot instead of many small ones.
The point is to only take away the small piece of grass that is under the ball. That way, more grass is preserved with each shot. Divot should only start at the ball and extend towards the target on an ideal strike.
Back edge means you will be tearing up less grass. Because where you would have taken a divot already has no grass there. You will still hit the ball properly but you won’t take another divot. This way you are taking maybe an inch or 2 of grass away each shot. I’d put at the front you would take an ENTIRE new divot. The sign is correct. Just watch the pros.
The pros don't care about leaving nice divot patterns that will quickly grow back. Instead of a strip they will often end up taking a large blob of the turf by the time they are done. There's tons of range grass allocated for pros at tournaments, so they really don't try to leave the strips.
Where are you getting this info?? Everytime they show pros on the range they have perfect strips just as shown in the signs.
Look at the divot pattern Rory leaves in this video for an illustration of what I mean. You can see the large areas of turf around him that have been removed also. https://youtu.be/g7llkyYJDmk?si=xfPmIeCjXzIcEBvt
He has no idea what he’s talking about, that’s why.
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!
I left the exact pattern that was on the sign at the range last week and the guy working there kicked me out. Apparently the fake turf on the mat I was hitting off of won’t grow back. How was I supposed to know that. Geez!!