WATCH: Paige Spirinac shares handy tip to fix your pitch marks on the green

James Richardson
October 14, 2023

There is nothing worse than arriving at a green only to find it pocked by inconsiderate players’ pitch marks.

Golfers differ on their views over course care, but it is generally accepted that the standard procedure is to always fix pitch marks on the green.

This handy tip from Paige Spiranac will help you avoid leaving the course worse than you found it.

You can use a tee or standard divet repair tool, but the technique is key to ensuring that you don’t do further damage to the green.

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A post shared by Paige Spiranac (@_paige.renee)

Basic course etiquette

If you’re new to the sport, you likely believe golf carts to be the greatest invention ever. Although they are fantastic, before driving all over the course, make sure to check with the pro shop. You could only be permitted to drive on the cart route depending on the time of year and the weather.

In order to prevent the carts from wrecking the course, this frequently occurs when playing golf during the winter or in extremely wet circumstances. This is also a very typical occurrence on holes 1, 9, 18, and any other holes that are visible from the parking lot or from outside the course.

Speaking of taking care on the course, make sure you step on the green with extreme caution. Even if the game’s rules now let you remove spike markers, it’s still exceedingly impolite to cut in front of another player’s line since it might throw their putt off course.

You should stay away from both their “through line” and their original line. They should also avoid the through line because that is where their ball would land if it missed far.

If you made it to the green in regulation, congratulations. That most likely indicates that your ball left a minor imprint on the green. This is known as a pitch mark to some. You should fix your ball mark if you don’t want bad karma on your back. Basically, you want to smooth down the mark you’ve left behind using a particular golf tool or the above technique so that golfers who are following you can roll smoothly if their putting line happens to cross where your mark is.

If you lose your ball you have a limited time to try and find it and should maintain respect for the course throughout your short hunt for the errant orb.