"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

July 20, 2006

Black Creek course superintendent Scott Wicker says he can’t remember the last time he putted over a spike mark.

“I guess it’s been six or seven years,” Wicker said.

Considering that metal spikes have long ago gone the way of the persimmon-headed driver, Wicker’s experience is common. For that, golfers everywhere can thank the soft spikes revolution that began in the early 1990s.

A similar movement is underway, thanks in large part to the efforts of Danny Edwards, who has proven to be a much better entrepreneur than he was a pro golfer, and he won four PGA Tour events. In 1994, Edwards started Royal Grip Company and soon became a pain in the backside to industry giant Golf Pride before selling out.

Now Edwards has thrown his energy into GreenFix Golf. The company’s stock in trade is a revolutionary new divot repair tool that has proven to be almost foolproof at fixing ball marks, greatly speeding up the time they take to heal.

We’ve all had to putt over an improperly repaired ball mark, or the hideous brown spot they leave behind. Ironically, though we probably cussed the culprit who didn’t fix his mark the right way, we’ve probably gotten cussed ourselves for the same transgression. Turns out most of us haven’t mastered the art. And the tools that have previously been provided for the task were so poorly designed they often did more harm than good.

A study done by Kansas State proved that ball marks that weren’t repaired at all healed faster than those improperly repaired by a ham-handed player who didn’t know what he was doing.

If Edwards has his way, the problem of improperly repaired ball marks will soon join its first cousin spike marks in permanent exile. And he’ll probably make a ton of money.

All over the country, courses are buying the GreenFix Wizard, a plastic tool with two short prongs, and handing them out like crazy to members and guests alike.

In Chattanooga, most of the private clubs, including The Honors, Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, have purchased mass quantities of the Wizard. At Black Creek, the club will introduce the tool on Aug. 5 with a program aimed at educating its members and guests on the art of repairing greens.

That, Wicker says, won’t be too hard.

“It’s a tool that you literally can’t mess up,” he said.

That couldn’t be said about any divot repair tool you’ve used previously. Most had long tongs or serrated edges that dug into the green and tore out the roots of the grass. Often, they did more harm than good.

Modern golf course maintenance practices have made the problem of ball marks more pronounced.

“When I first got into the business, greens were mowed at a fourth of an inch,” said revered greens guru David Stone of The Honors Course. “Now it’s an eighth of an inch. The result is that ball marks take four to six weeks to heal back.”

And that can lead to some miserable putting conditions. All of us want to make more putts, so the GreenFix Wizard movement is welcome.

The Tennessee Golf Association doesn’t endorse the tool but is trying to team with GreenFix to promote awareness.

“As the governing body of Tennessee golf, we think that’s our duty,” said Matt Vanderpool, the TGA’s director of rules and competitions. “We want the highest quality greens in our state.”

Black Creek, which plays host to the Tennessee Amateur next month, plans on handing out the tool to every competitor in the tournament. Those players, in turn, will take it back to their clubs, and others will see how easy it is to fix a ball mark—just insert the tool around the edges of the crater and push toward the center. That’s it.

Stone is convinced the GreenFix Wizard will one day take its place alongside soft spikes as one of the game’s all-time best innovations.

“It very well may be like soft spikes,” Stone said. “The more clubs that adopt the tool, the more green conditions will improve. I really think it will be great for golf.”

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The first of three Tennessee Golf Association men’s championships to be played in Chattanooga this season comes to The Honors Course next week.

The Tennessee Match Play Championships began three years ago because some TGA board members thought the state’s best amateurs needed some experience in match play events.

“Actually there was a match play in the mid 1980s that became what’s now our mid-amateur,” said Vanderpool. “A couple of years some members of our competitions committee said they wanted to start a match play event again, just because we’re starting to have more of our players compete in USGA event.

“We wanted to provide a tournament here they can play in to get a feel for match play events.”

The tournament, along with a senior division, made its debut in 2004 at Ridgeway Country Club and was won by Clayton Ellis of Memphis. A year ago, at Hillwood Country Club, Tim Jackson won.

Jackson, a two-time winner of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, withdrew last week, so he won’t defend. But there are plenty of talented players in the 64-man field, including Danny Green, himself a former U.S. Mid-Amateur winner, Rob Long, Knoxville’s Jeff and Steve Golliher and Craig McElhaney. Chattanooga will be represented by, among others, UTC golfers Bryce Ledford and Mitch Brock, Josh Coley, Richard Keene and Steve Johnson, an Honors member.

In senior competition, Chattanoogans scheduled to play include Gary Chazen, Robert Franks, Ronnie Law and Larry White.

The tournament starts Tuesday, July 25 with an 18-hole stroke-play qualifying round. The low 32 players (16 for the seniors) will advance to match play. The winner will have to earn his trophy—two 18-hole rounds of match play are scheduled the next three days. The seniors get a bit of a break. After playing two matches on Wednesday, they play 18 Thursday and an 18-hole final on Friday.

The TGA will make two other trips to Chattanooga this season. The Tennessee Amateur will be played Aug. 8-11 at Black Creek, and the Mid-Amateur is set for the newly renovated Chattanooga Golf and Country Club Oct. 3-5.

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