Spring on Martha's Vineyard

We are currently on the back end of a storm that came through Thursday and Friday which dropped around 1/2 an inch of rain. And as anyone who has lived out this way knows that means wind. As storms pull out the wind tends to pick up and be steady. I would guess 25 mph with gusts in the 30's. Not a deterrent for the golfers who have been couped up all winter, however

fair number of cars for a sat in march with the clubhouse being closed

 Kevin and I decided to give the greens a little primping for the expected onslaught. He finished yet another cleaning of the surface and I rolled them. He then changed cups and started on blowing off tees. Tomorrow we will start in on bunkers. We were both a little dismayed to see the number of ball marks on the greens considering the greens have been open less than a week.

first roll of the season



these guys do more damage to the greens than most diseases we fight in a season. if there was only a tool to fix them....

 Ball marks have become a nationwide epidemic. Notice I did not say global. We tend to keep turf wetter and softer in this country and have transformed the game into an aerial one. Club sets now have at least three wedges and the term and style "bump and run" are fastly joining ones like "Stymie". If I had a dollar for every golfer who told me he fixed his and several others we could give Ipad2's away in the pro shop. The next epidemic in the category of lost etiquette is broken tees. It might be easy to blame the new large head drivers but they only break them not leave them behind making a mess of everything. I get many requests for broken tee caddies. I tell people we had them, didn't work. My answer is to treat it like compost able trash either throw it in the woods or in the trash, simple. The last thing I want to do is clutter up the course with feel good accessories. Private clubs are loaded with them and it trickles into the main stream think distance aids: sprinkler tags, yardage disks, colored flags or sliding balls on the flag stick, 150 trees or markers, yardage books, lasers, GPS units, did I miss any? All that help and yet the average golfer is still in the mid 20's for handicap. We need old school values or etiquette to return to the game not more clutter. The beat goes on