By Todd Mathews
Golf Course Superintendent
For many years the golf maintenance staff has been repairing tee divots with the use of seed under sand. We sprinkle a special blend of seed in the divot, and then cover it with sand. The seed germinates quickly and within 10 days the divot has disappeared. Some of our tees are small and suffer much wear and tear on a daily basis. If we did not repair the tee divots regularly with seed and sand, eventually, they would be in very poor condition.

A few years ago we placed sand buckets at the par three tees so that golfers could fill their own divot. The problem was that we were not able to sew any seed before the golfers applied the sand. We then tried mixing some seed in the sand buckets but it ended up germinating while still in the bucket. The result was a bucket of green grass that often needed mowing! We decided that in order to get seed into every divot we would have to apply the sand ourselves. We have received several inquiries about the sand buckets being removed from the par three tees. While it was a good idea to have sand for the golfers to apply at the par three tees, we would rather repair the divot ourselves so we are sure to get seed under the sand.

This summer, we took the same principle of tee divot repair and applied it to fairway divots. The only difference being that we used bermuda seed under the sand. We are in the midst of experiments aimed at converting our fairways to bermuda. We are trying several different propagation techniques. Bermuda seed is difficult to germinate in Cumberland County but we are seeing some good results of late. Bermuda seed, when sewn in a divot and covered with sand, stands a good chance of germinating as the sand helps to hold in plenty of moisture through the day. We are starting to see some germination about 12 to 14 days after the seed was sewn. If this technique shows some favorable results, it may lead us in the direction of using seed to convert our fairways.