Leaving Your Mark

I've been wanting to share this topic for many years, but aeration week always gets crazy and I forget to take the picture.  I finally got the picture and you can see that a ball mark has more impact than just the mark itself.  This particular mark measured 4 inches in diameter! 

The B.M.I.

While all the politicians have been announcing initiatives and agendas in Iowa this past week, I am announcing our own initiative of sorts.  I am calling it the Ball Mark Intitiative or BMI which sounds a bit more catchy.  This plan unifies all parties while working across the lines to do what is best for the course.  The BMI takes a 4 pronged approach to solving ball marks.  We have introduced friendly reminders on the flag sticks, posted signs in the golf shop, we are providing free repair tools and we are also informing customers in the shop and through the GPS system.  The next step begins with you.  If you can get one person to follow you in fixing your ball mark and doing it correctly, than you can go to sleep knowing you helped make Cinnabar a better place.  

All kidding aside, un-repaired ball marks this time of year may take up to 4 or 6 weeks to heal assuming they haven't been filled with Poa annua.  

Fork It!

Fork it, poke it, stab it, slam it with a putter; I don't care.  I honestly like using a fork to fix ballmarks as I feel it does the best job, but it doesn't matter to me what you use anymore.  When I was younger and more niave, I actually cared about how the ballmark was fixed, but I am so beyond that now.  I am just asking for the attempt to fix it using anything at your disposal.  While my frustration is obvious, it is also obvious to me that the audience of this blog aren't the perpetrators.  I just want everyone to know that all of us in the maintenance department take a great amount of pride in providing a high quality product and everyday we wonder why people would denigrate our golf course like this.

If you have any suggestions to help with our problem, we are all ears.