The great irony of divot repair is that members trying really hard to do the right thing by filling their divots often end up doing more harm than good.  Below is an example of this from the edge of #9 fairway.  Underneath this pile of green divot mix is a perfectly rectangular and fairly shallow divot.  Instead of applying a nice layer of sand to fill the divot, a scoopful was simply dumped and left in place.

There are problems with this that members may not realize.  First of all, the time and money we spend blending the mix with seed, compost, sand, and green paint makes me cringe when it is wasted like this.  Second, this pile of sand, if not caught before hand, will be drawn onto our cutting units on the fairway mowers.  These precision machines are carefully ground and sharpened to cut our fairways at LESS than a half an inch.  Sand getting sucked into the unit can severly dull these blades and causing the quality of cut to suffer as well as stress the plant.  MOST importantly, the divot will not heal quickly or properly with such an excess of sand piled atop it.

When using our soil-seed mix, please apply just enough to fill the divot and smooth with your scoop, club, or foot.  It will help the divot heal more quickly and make me less likely to pull my hair out.  Check out the "helpful links" section of the blog for a USGA video on divot repair and filling. 

Sometimes less is more!