[PHOTO: zulufriend]
You can live with burnt-out fairways, unkempt bunkers and tees that are more mud than grass, but most golfers will agree that a golf course isn’t worth your time if the putting greens are really neglected. We’re not talking about aeration holes or top dressing. Normal course maintenance is a necessity and part of the game. However, when a green is riddled with tree droppings, weeds and large bare patches, it makes a key part of the game more of a hit-and-hope process than a honed skill.
You might wonder what steps you can take to make a putting green a little bit nicer before you hit your putt or even chip from off the green (it doesn’t matter where you ball is). Let’s review what you can and can’t do under Rule 13.1c.
CAN
Remove sand or loose soil: You can swipe it away with your hand, hat, virtually any way you wish (Shop-Vac, anyone?).
Restore the green: As long as you’re trying to rehabilitate the green to its original condition, you can do a lot of clean-up with your hand, foot, ball-mark repair tool, tee, club or similar item of normal equipment. This includes fixing damage from clubs, pitch marks, spike marks, cleat drags, old hole plugs, animal tracks or embedded objects such as small stones, etc.
Repair the hole itself: Sometimes the edges of a cup are caved in by a golf ball or flagstick (or an angry golfer). You can restore the cup in these instances.
(Keep in mind all of this is OK so long as you don’t unreasonably delay play under Rule 5.6a.)
CAN’T
Repair aeration holes or mowing grooves: Can you imagine how slow a round would be if golfers tried to repair all the holes and indents on a green created from normal course-maintenance practices? These marks are treated differently than old hole plugs, turf plugs, seams of cut turf and scrapes or indentations from maintenance tools or vehicles, which are OK to repair.
Move away from bare spots, pull weeds, etc: Unless it’s marked as ground under repair, you can’t fix these areas and you have to putt through this mess. Sorry.
Make an old, crusty hole look nicer: “Natural wear” of a hole is not covered under Rule 13.1c. If for some reason the hole lost its round shape (yikes!), call the pro shop to get someone out there to fix it.
Soak up water: Irrigation, rain or other natural forces aren’t considered damage (although you can take free relief from temporary water).
Excessively alter the green: Keep in mind that you can’t do things like “repair” the green in a way that creates a track to the hole from where your ball rests. You know better than that!
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