Tournament Week, What is That, That Time Again and My Two Cents!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"! Today is May 23, 2012 and it is Member-Member week at Carolina Golf Club.  With the 3-day (54 hole) Member-Member Championship scheduled for this coming Memorial Day weekend it can only mean it is time for more rain!  I don't know why but recently (going back to last season) it seems the best way out of a dry period is to begin course preparations for one of our major tournaments.  Two weeks ago we received 2.25 inches rain during the week leading into the Member-Guest tournament and this morning I arrived to find just over 1 inch of rain in the gauge as storms moved north through Charlotte as most of us were probably getting ready for bed last night.  Of course there are storms in the forecast for this afternoon, evening and tomorrow too. 

Perhaps you have seen some of my staff members (assistant superintendent Shane Harrelson pictured using the Fieldscout TDR 300) walking the putting surfaces with a strange device in their hands recently and wondered what they are doing.  I acquired two soil moisture meters that are helping bring putting green management at Carolina into the 21st century.   Prior to now, knowing the

water requirements each putting surface needed to get through the day was based solely on experience and in some instances gut instinct.  Although still true today, now we are able to assign a value to those conditions where experience alone was all we had prior.  By monitoring the greens daily we can determine how wet they truly are after an irrigation or rain event and how quickly or slowly (depending on the weather) they begin to dry.  In other words, the tools allow us to quantify the minimum amount of soil moisture the plant needs to make it through the day without wilting.  Armed with this knowledge our irrigation practices (hand watering or overhead sprinklers) are more precise thus we use less water and our putting surfaces are even better than before!

Many or you already know but I wanted to give you a friendly reminder next week we will be aerating the putting greens.  This late spring/early summer aeration utilizes the smallest tine size available to us (half the diameter of the tines used in early spring and fall).  The purpose of this aeration is to create even more holes prior to the onset of summer conditions so we can maximize the amount of oxygen to the turf's roots for greater summer survival.  Also, not only will we be aerating the putting surfaces but this is the first of two scheduled aerations for the fairways (the other is mid-July).  Tees and roughs will be aerated upon the completion of the greens and fairways.  In other words, it is going to be a little "messy" out here (especially in the early morning dew) so please plan and schedule your golf accordingly.

On a final note, it was so nice last week to receive well wishes from many of you regarding both my tenure at Carolina as well as my opportunity to play our architect's masterpiece, Pinehurst No. 2!  Prior to the start of my round last Thursday morning I spoke with the starter and inquired how the modifications to the course had been received by most of the resort guests.  He told me it was 50/50 (either they loved it or hated it and there really wasn't any middle ground).  Having played the course I understand why because the lack of lush, emerald green rough is not pleasing to the eye of everyone however I am not a member of this demographic.

View of the 1st green (2nd hole in the background).

View of the 12th green complex.

The newly "recreated" sandy, waste areas give a totally different look to the golf course than most American golfers are accustomed to.  I found the "scruff" as I called it to be very playable and even the caddy in the group mentioned how it is easier for resort guests to find and advance the ball as opposed to before when their only option was to hit a wedge back in play.  Of course the scruffy areas contained wire grass, pine needles, pine cones and various weeds.  They will evolve with the seasons and mature over the next couple of years before the U.S. Open returns in 2014 making for a very interesting championship.

I read the sign to the right of the first tee with the quote from Donald Ross about this being the finest test of championship golf and the requirements of such (long, accurate tee shots, strong iron play, precise putting, etc.) and took a deep breath.  We played the blue tees (6930 yards, par 72) and 18 holes later I was mentally exhausted.  I totally understand what Mr. Ross meant about this being the finest test of "championship" golf as I do not recall anywhere in the round where I could catch my breath.  I have never seen nor played another course that requires and demands your full attention and concentration on every tee shot, approach, recovery and putt.  The new "old" look blew me away and I loved the entire experience!

How did I play?  I hit 8 greens in regulation and only made one birdie (the par 4 13th).  I am proud to say I never 3 putted and my flop shot impressed the caddy in our group.  I bogeyed the two closing holes as the mental grind was getting the best of me (choke) and my score was 39-38...77!  A day and a round I will never forget!

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton
Golf Course Superintendent

Happy Anniversary, How Wet Is It, New Faces and Donald Ross!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is May 16, 2012 and it is a very special day for me!  My late maternal grandmother, Margaret Hankins was born on May 16th.  Granny reared me as my mother and I lived with my grandparents from the time of my birth through the completion of seventh grade.  My granny meant the world to me and I always enjoy spending this day remembering her and how special she was to me (she would have been 91 years old today).  Granny passed away in 1996 and I am welling up with tears now thinking about how much I miss her!  I hope she would have been proud of me!  On a happier note, it was exactly seven years ago today I began working as the the golf course superintendent of Carolina Golf Club!  It has been an honor and a privilege...and fast (time really does fly when you get older).  Anyway, I want to wish a Happy Birthday prayer to my granny and Happy Anniversary to me!

Recall April was a fairly dry month with less than two inches rain total.  We went the entire first week of May without any rain and the news outlets were reporting moderate drought conditions for our region and a deficit for the year of nearly five inches.  Scratch that!  Last week during the Member-Guest tournament we received 2.26 inches rain mid-week with 1.9 inches falling overnight Tuesday (8th) into Wednesday morning (9th).  The course became saturated and we had to become very creative in order to accomplish the fairway mowing around the shotgun starts of the event.  From the reactions I received, I believe my staff and I were very successful.  This week we have taken on another 1.52 inches rain with nearly 0.4" coming in a stray, rogue storm that passed through last night!  Again, we have standing water in several fairways and golf cars are restricted to the paths.  In fact, it is so wet the late Johnny Carson would say even the ducks need goulashes!  The majority of this rain fell hard on Monday and the course started to dry with the sunny weather yesterday but last night was unfortunately a setback!  Anyway, we are now up to 3.78 inches of rain for the month of May and all in the last week (that is a month's worth in seven days).  Hopefully we can dodge the forecasted showers and storms for this afternoon and things look dry through the weekend so conditions should improve each day!

In other news there are two new faces on the golf course maintenance team I would like to introduce to you now:

Jeff Rockwell is a native of Charlotte and comes to us from Charlotte Golf Links where he was the assistant superintendent.  Jeff also used to work on the maintenance staff at Providence C.C.  He attended Wofford College and also Central Piedmont Community College's Turfgrass Management program.  Jeff has an eleven-year old son named Justus and he loves being on the golf course!

Larry Pigeon is the first person to serve a summer internship with my team here at Carolina Golf Club!  Larry comes to us from Oklahoma City where he has been studying turfgrass management at the Oklahoma City campus of Oklahoma State University.  He has also studied at the University of Arkansas.  Larry's prior golf course work experience includes Cherokee Trails Golf Club, Oak Tree National and most recently Willow Creek Golf and Country Club all located in Oklahoma.  Larry has two children, a son Jonathan who resides in Oklahoma City and daughter Mercedes who resides in Tampa, Florida.

My team and I are excited to have Jeff and Larry join our ranks and I will blog more later about Larry's internship and the projects he will be working on when our other intern, Sean Hatch (from Central Piedmont Community College) joins us in a couple of weeks. 

Well, that's all for now as I am off to the sandhills this afternoon to closely inspect several golf holes designed by our favorite, Donald Ross.  I am joining a group of guys for a casual "warm-up" round of golf today at Mid-Pines and then tomorrow morning I will get my first ever look at Pinehurst #2 (I am excited).  Tomorrow afternoon are 18 more holes at Pine Needles so I am very blessed and grateful for this opportunity to spend time up close and personal with Donald Ross and his masterful creations!  Until next time...

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton
Golf Course Superintendent

Qualifiers, Different Opinions and Driving Range Tee!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is Tuesday, May 1, 2012 and we finally completed the Wells Fargo Qualifying Tournament earlier this morning.  That's right, we had to return to the course this morning to resume the playoff for the final qualifying spot as we ran out of daylight yesterday evening before the playoff could be completed.  Ten individuals carded 66's and played off for the final two qualifying spots (a 64 and a 65 had secured the other two available qualifying positions).  After five extra holes (10, 18, 10, 18 and 10) we had identified one other qualifier and were left with three individuals vying for the final spot.  Play resumed on 18 this morning at 7:30 am and after one birdie and two pars the 2012 version of the qualifying event was in the books!

After hosting this tournament for three consecutive years I thought now would be a perfect time to express some observations plus answer some questions I seem to receive each year.  I want to start by saying I do not choose the hole locations for either the pre-qualifying or qualifying tournaments.  Neither does Jeff (Jeff Peck, Head Golf Professional).  The PGA Tour through the cooperation of the PGA Carolinas Section conducts the tournaments using our course and facilities.  Cory Armstrong, Tournament Director, PGA Carolinas Section and his staff communicate with Jeff and I usually the week prior and then arrive on Tuesday prior to the pre-qualifying tournament to begin marking hazards and out-of-bounds for the tournament.  You may wonder why they do this when the course is already marked for competition.  The PGA marks the course as to how it best suits their needs for the event!  This means they may take a hazard normally marked yellow and change it to red or install temporary out-of-bounds markers between the first and second holes to eliminate the possibility of any competitor playing the first hole by way of the second.  On Wednesday they choose their hole locations and supply me with a hole location sheet.  On the morning of the event, one of the PGA staff members travels with the member of my staff responsible for the task of cutting the new hole placement and the PGA staff member observes to ensure the hole is located in the proper place.  The PGA staff member also positions the tee markers in the locations they desire and marks them with paint in case a marker should become accidentally moved or dislodged during the course of play.

Cory and his staff have been great to work with the past three years and yes, they do consult with me regarding potential hole locations, tee placements, etc. but at the end of the day it is their responsibility to make the decisions.  It has been interesting to observe the changes they make regarding the hazards each year and the difference in philosophy among the PGA Tour versus governing bodies such as the USGA or the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA).  It is my opinion based on my observations and questions the past three years governing bodies view hazards from a more formal point of view and the tour uses a somewhat "watered down" approach.  By this I mean the tour takes all possible scenarios into play (e.g., a player hits a shot into a hazard guarding hole A from a position while playing hole B...) and thus concludes the easiest solution to all possible scenarios is to make the hazard red as opposed to leaving it marked yellow.  It is also my observation many of you have failed to notice these changes the past three years thus you are all accomplished players who never hit into the hazards or you are not paying attention to the hazards and their respective markings while playing.  Either way, now you know and if anyone is interested in a more technical answer I will be happy to explain it on site sometime...just flag me down and wave me over and I will share my knowledge with you and your friends!

Getting back to setting up the course, the responsibilities of my staff and I are to prepare the course for each day of competitive play.  We mow and roll the greens late the evening before along with mowing tees, fairways and approaches.  The morning of the events, we mow the greens, rake the bunkers and remove the dew if necessary from the tee boxes and fairways along with cutting the hole locations and painting the lips of the cups for greater visibility.  We put in many hours working hard to ensure your course is presented in its best possible fashion.  It is something we really enjoy and our "little taste of the big time" certainly changes up the routine in our world.

In other news, you may or may not have seen the email yesterday regarding the current state of the driving range tee and our plans for action.  For those of you that didn't receive the message we closed the tee this morning and aerated with our smallest aerator and filled all divots.  All the artificial teeing squares were removed from their stations and the turf rotated 180 degrees then reinstalled (this was done to help even the wear on the surface from this season's use).  Tomorrow the tee will be fertilized and watered prior to the arrival of players (minor postponement due to the playoff this morning) and we will continue to use the artificial teeing locations at least through Thursday.  I will reevaluate the tee's condition Friday morning and decide whether or not to reopen the turf at that time.  It is important to understand the warm March (80 degree days and 60 degree nights) brought our bermudagrass turf out of dormancy earlier than ever this year but April's cold spells (30 degree nights) with many days in the 60's stunted the bermudagrass turf from growing.  Remember, bermudagrass is a warm-season grass and there is a difference between greening up and actually growing.  Right now, the turf may be green in color but it has not been growing substantially enough for the divot patterns on the tee to fully recover in a timely fashion.

I hope this information helps you have a better understanding of how the PGA conducts the qualifying tournaments at Carolina Golf Club and how the driving range tee is going to be pretty darn good in just a few days.  The Greens Committee will be meeting Wednesday, May 9th.  If you have any comments, questions or concerns feel free to contact Stephen Woodard (Committee Chairman) at his email SWoodard@mpvre.com or myself.   We encourage and welcome the feedback.

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton

Golf Course Superintendent

A New Hope, Catching Up, New Toy and Protection!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is Friday, April 27, 2012 and Guest Day at Carolina Golf Club is off to a spectacular beginning.  Greens were both mowed and rolled today for our fun competition and the weather is the best its been since...well, you know what I mean.  Some of you may be asking where I have been lately considering I haven't posted an update in a few weeks.  I have been here at Carolina working diligently with my staff to prepare the course for the Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying Tournaments for the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship (the Pre-Qualifying Tournament was yesterday).  Also, I have been praying the above normal weather we experienced in March would quickly return.  It seems we replaced nearly 15,000 square feet of bermudagrass sod on our green's collars and immediately Mother Nature couldn't make up her mind whether it was March or May.  Considering it was April all this time and March felt mostly like May and April felt mostly like March, what will May feel like?  Help me Jim Cantore, you're my only hope!

Since my last blog update, my staff and I installed new irrigation on the event lawn (my apologies for not having pictures of this project).  Prior to the new patio construction the lawn area was irrigated with a couple of golf course irrigation heads.  Those have been removed and we installed new, smaller sports field heads to give us greater coverage and control... all while ensuring we are only watering the event lawn and not the new patio!  In the past few weeks we have also had all tree stumps removed with a stump grinder.  Stump holes were filled with soil and either sodded to bermudagrass or seeded with our natural area seed mix and mulched.  We rerouted the discharge line of the well located near the creek crossing between the 4th and 17th holes.  The well now discharges upstream in the retention pond left of #15 fairway and supplies a continuous stream along the creek channel.  All landscape beds on the property have received a fresh supply of mulch (this includes parking lot islands, club house and pool landscape areas and golf course trees).  Sprinkler heads were recently edged and we continue to fine tune the golf course as we patiently wait for Mother Nature to turn on the heat and bring the bermudagrass mowing season upon us full speed ahead!

In other golf course maintenance news, the Board of Governors approved (with the recommendation from the Greens Committee) the acquisition of an AeraVator!  I know, you are thrilled...

Actually, I am very excited about our new "toy" and once the qualifying tournaments are complete I intend to use it very extensively.  The AeraVator uses both solid tines and vibratory action to create a hole and "shatter" the soil profile simultaneously thus alleviating compaction in extreme cases.  I proposed the acquisition to the Greens Committee earlier this year as a great tool to help us combat the over compacted turf in many areas where traffic is unreasonably high.  The machine does NOT remove a core of soil thus the impact to the surface and playability is minimal.  As we begin to incorporate the unit into our maintenance regime I will post more pictures as well as before and afters.

Also, the Greens Committee decided to contract Arborguard to assess and install lightning protection on our property's specimen hardwood trees.  I met with their certified arborist, Barry Gemberling to tour the entire course earlier this month.

We identified 13 specimen oak and poplar trees worthy of protection based either on appearance/size and/or strategic impact of the golf hole.  Barry and his team were great to work with and completed the task in three days.  Arborguard also performed soil injection "therapy" to those same selected trees to aid their ability to survive in a golf course turf environment.

That's all for now!  I need to go and get ready for a busy weekend of member and guest play as well as practice rounds for the Monday qualifying tournament.  I will post a new update sometime Tuesday sharing information with each of you regarding the course set up for the qualifying tournaments and anything else I may think of along the way.  Until then...

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton

Golf Course Superintendent

Jim Nantz, The Driving Range Tee and 7:46 PM!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is Thursday, April 5, 2012 and a tradition unlike any other is underway in nearby Augusta, Georgia!  Thanks to my grandfather and his love for the game of golf, this is my most favorite tournament in the world.  Funny thing is I spend most of this day each year humming the old holiday classic, "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"  (I guess it's only fitting to think of Christmas so close to Easter!)  Anyway, The Masters is like the unofficial start of the golf season as everyone gets the fever to play and activity at the club increases daily.  Although this past winter wasn't that cold it is still nice to see green grass and more friendly faces each day at Carolina!

I figured today was a great day to open the driving range tee for use!  As you head out to the club you will see we are once again on the turf at Carolina.  You may also notice we recently installed new flags on the target greens (same color scheme but these flags are slightly oversized for greater visibility).  Also, we added reflectors to the top of each flagstick (same as on the course) for those of you wishing to measure your own distances with laser devices.  Tomorrow we will adorn the course with new cups, flags and flagsticks as we do every spring.

Last time, I addressed the issue we were experiencing with the collars and promised an update along with some photos.  We began removing the affected areas this past Monday (while simultaneously prepping the event lawn area for new sod to tie back into the new patio and sidewalk).  Sod arrived first thing Tuesday morning and with two crews we were able to repair the event lawn and resod the collars of the first seven holes (we stopped here because we were not able to have any more sod delivered until Wednesday morning).  The sod truck scheduled for 7:00 am Wednesday morning arrived shortly after 9:30 am (don't you love it when a plan comes together) and we worked diligently to complete the job before the day was done!  At 7:46 pm I took this picture of some of my crew members topdressing the sod we had just installed around our last putting surface.

End of a long day!

With the sun beginning to set the guys were happy to be completed with the task!  Evan Long (former Carolina Invitational champion) and his young son Ben were enjoying a twilight nine together (the Dogfight had already come and gone by this time).  When we started we were targeting affected areas such as this:

Before...

During...

After...

Once complete all the new turf was rolled, topdressed and hand watered.  Next week we will feed the turf with liquid fertilizer and continue to roll and topdress to ensure a smooth surface.  We will also mow the new collars as soon as the turf tacks down new roots.  In the interim, please treat the areas as ground under repair and take free relief.  Where applicable, please step across the sod and when necessary please be mindful and tread lightly.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation! 

Come Solomon!  The Masters first round will be replayed this evening on ESPN!

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton

Golf Course Superintendent

Dress Code Violation and More New Faces!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"! Today is Friday, March 30, 2012 and it is my responsibility to inform each of you what has happened most recently in regards to our collars and what the plan of action is going forward.  When Benjamin Franklin said in 1789, "nothing is certain but death and taxes" he obviously had no knowledge of the game of golf or the profession of greenkeeping.  However, his famous phrase fits perfectly with my profession as we deal with dead and/or dying grass more frequently than desired.

I believe it is safe to say nearly everyone has been surprised by the above normal temperatures (not only this winter, but most recently this month) and the early arrival of late, spring-like conditions.  Bermudagrass has greened up earlier than any of us can ever remember and each day the temperature gets warmer and warmer (forecasts as of this morning are calling for temperatures this coming Monday, April 2nd to reach 88 degrees).  I am frequently asked by members if I am liking the weather or if the weather is good for the course.  Although I enjoy the spring like conditions and am thankful this past winter was considerably more comfortable than the previous two, I am a firm believer that things in nature work better when things occur within the normal range.  In other words, whether it be trees, shrubs or turf those plants have a much greater chance of survival if they are not asked to endure the abnormal.

So what does all this mean about the collars you ask.  When we aerate greens each year in the early spring the bermudagrass is still dormant (usually).  Greens are aerated completely, meaning the collars also receive some attention and of course the topdressing and brushing also transcends into the collar region.  It is important to note the collar, or apron as some refer to it is a transition zone between the fairway/approach into the putting surface.  It is almost impossible to apply a treatment to the putting surface that does not also get applied to the collar when making the effort to treat the entire putting surface.  Having said that, let's review what happens when bermudagrass goes dormant then later wakes from its dormant period.

At the conclusion of summer as the days begin to shorten bermudagrass begins to store energy from photosynthesis for later use.  Like a squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter, the bermudagrass turf stores away the energy it will need for the spring green-up period (post dormancy transition).  It has been said that bermudagrass uses its last "gallon of gas" to wake itself from winter dormancy and thus the turf is in a vulnerable state at that moment.  This is exactly why we have already applied fertilizer to our tees and fairways about a month sooner than normal, to make nutrients available to the plant since the "tank is empty" at this time.  When we were aerating greens our collars were just starting to break dormancy and I was pleased to see so many green leaves looking up at me considering the cold winter injury we had endured the two previous years that required sodding.  As the past few days have gone by I have watched the collars decline rather than continue to fill in from their post winter hibernation. 

Yesterday, I asked a colleague to stop by and give an unbiased "second opinion".  We toured the course together looking at the greens and collars and he asked questions about when we aerated the putting greens.  The two of us replayed the timeline of events like "Turfgrass CSI".  In conclusion, we determined the bermudagrass turf in the collar region was most likely at that vulnerable moment where it was unable to tolerate the mechanical stress imposed by the putting green aeration process.  You may recall I stated one of the reasons the greens are always so good when we aerate is so they are better able to withstand the mechanical stress of aeration.  Had our bermudagrass turf been completely dormant at the time of aeration this most likely would not have happened and if the turf had been fully greened up and actively growing this definitely would not have happened. 

Unfortunately, neither of those scenarios describe the scene of our aeration this year and now we are faced with the task of either enduring the unsightly collar regions until the turf can fully recover and grow back or replacing the turf with sod.  I spoke with both Roger Wolfe (General Manager) and Stephen Woodard (Greens Chairman) yesterday and informed them both of everything concerning this situation.  The three of us mutually agreed and my staff and I will be prepping the areas for new sod on Monday (sod is scheduled for delivery Tuesday morning).  I believe it will take us at least two days to complete the task.  With our upcoming schedule of events (Master's Shootout, PGA Tour Qualifiers, Member-Guest and Member-Member) it is clearly apparent waiting for the turf to recover and regrow is not a viable option at this time.  Thank you for your understanding! 

In other news I wanted to introduce to you some other new faces you have probably seen working on the golf course.

Cameron Phillips is originally from Douglasville, Georgia. His family moved to the Charlotte area eight years ago and he is a 2008 graduate of Porter Ridge High School in Indian Trail.  Cam started working at CGC on February 15th of this year.

Hidden Creek Contractors from Bakersville, NC is once again providing our seasonal staff.  The six young men above are all from Moldova, a small country located in eastern Europe (between Romania and Ukraine).  They are here through the U.S. State Department and the World International Student Exchange (WISE) as part of their education.  Please make Grigori, Serghei, Igor, Dionis, Andrei and Vladimir or as we call them (Greg, Sergio, Igor, Dennis, Andy and Vova) feel welcome. 

I hope today's update has helped explain the current situation with the golf course and you have a better understanding of what happened, why it happened and everything will be as good as new very shortly.  I will update you on the progress of the project next week and include some before and after photos.  Thank you again for your patience and understanding and here's hoping I will...

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton

Golf Course Superintendent

Colonel Kilgore, Bunkers and Pitch Marks!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is Friday, March 23, 2012.  This past Monday and Tuesday my men and I were tasked with tearing up the best greens in Charlotte.  The scene looked a little something like this:

I jest!  Actually the task was completed seamlessly over the 2-day period thanks to a very cooperative Mother Nature and looked something more like this:

 

With aeration behind us we set our sights on the bunkers.  Our property contains 78 sand bunkers (76 on the golf course and 2 practice bunkers).  The task for the remainder of this week was to probe the depth of the sand throughout the bunker floor to ensure adequate and consistent sand levels.  Displaced sand was returned to areas in need and the edges of the bunkers were packed to create a smooth transition for ball roll at the turf/sand interface.  With this objective in mind, our newly arrived seasonal staff from Moldova were instructed and supervised over the past three days as they completely transformed our bunkers from this:

To this:

The difference may appear more subtle in these pictures than is real but any semblance of a vertical "edge" has been removed and a ball approaching the bunker along the ground should gather in the bottom of the bunker away from the edge.  This is going to be a point of emphasis with the daily management of the bunkers in an effort to help alleviate the penal nature of their design. 

Ball marks or as they say down under...pitch marks are always a good topic of discussion.  I was approached by more than one member prior to aeration to remind everyone of the importance to repair ball marks and to do so properly.  Funny thing is I usually find that most people really have a hard time repairing ball marks immediately following aeration because of the difficult nature of locating them while the greens heal.  Anyway, it is always good to have a refresher course in ball mark repair so I enlisted the services of my dear friend David Warwick at Avondale Golf Club in Pymble, Australia.  Thanks to the wonderful world wide web I captured this video of David demonstrating proper pitch mark repair from his club's website:

Hopefully you were fully able to understand him!  David has a couple of other really good course care videos I will share with you in "The Greenkeeper" at later dates.  Thanks for your help, mate!

Until next time...

See you on the course

Matthew Wharton

Golf Course Superintendent