Just fine any of the ill-bred bums that don't replace any divots they hack out.

Guga II, I completely agree with you. I like golf but will say not that good but to me it is the fresh air and excerise that I like. I was taught that the only two times that you actualy want to get under the ball is on the drive and in a sand trap. On the fairway if you make a divid you didn't hit the ball correctly and you must replace the divid.

Aoda you are mistaken I believe, the drive is hit at the start of the upswing, the normal iron shot on the fairway at the bottom of the downswing thus causing the divot. Guga as usual is the "thick end of the wedge"

Well in fixing a divot a person could break a nail.

#3 Being just a thick wedge, you presume to know how every golfer manages to hack out his particular divot. In any event, being a thick wedge, you are missing the point. Anyone who manages to hack out a divot should replace it.

Oh, come on - just replace the fairways, tee offs and greens with 'Astroturf' .... there; problem solved in an environmentally responsible manner.

#6. Conan!!! :O You're a philistine!! An honest-to-goodness out-and-out philistine!!

I thought I hated golf as much the next man, woman, thing .... but replacing real grass with Astroturf?? Only a real hater would advocate that.

I salute your genius!

You realise the rabid golfers are gonna have a go atcha, dontcha???

Boy Wonder

"You realise the rabid golfers are gonna have a go atcha, dontcha???"

Not just the golfers. Us dog owners have rights too. Astroturf would remove a dog's opportunity to take a dump in pleasant surroundings.

Do away with the clubs.

Batter them wi' baseball bats.

this problem, and many other problems in golf, could be dealt with if the governing authorities (ie the R&A) had the balls to stand up to the manufacturers and ban certain types of clubs and balls.

Fine old courses would then not have to be redrawn to cope with the baseball hat brigade and their space age plastic golf equipment.

another solution, as said above, would be fewer golfers. No person, no problem as Stalin put it.

Selgovae:- think positive man, just imagine how much easier it would be for you to use your wee plastic bag to clear up the mess your four footed friend left.

4. The Forgotten Princess, Blacksburg / 4:26am 23 Sep 2007 Well in fixing a divot a person could break a nail.
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It is awful when one breaks a nail Princess...I know what you mean.

I broke a nail one time on the Royal and Ancient when I deigned to pick my nose. Just awful I can tell you.

If you let people on the course who can pay but can't play, then what can you expect. It seems to me that the Clubs ( i.e the course owners not the sticks you use to hit the little balls) want it both ways.
Just introduce a "Golfing Proficiency Certificate" and have beginners courses (i.e. little fields with ponds and sandpits and little holes for the little balls to go into) where you could do a Beginners Course ( where someone takes you round the little field with ponds and sandpits and little holes for the little balls to go into) and if you get round it without making divots (little holes made by people trying to hit the little ball so it goes into another little hole) then you get the Certificate and a shiny badge and you can go on the big one.

Does anyone know if the Royal and Ancient looks after the rules for crazy golf as well ? I want to know whether a ball which strikes the windmill blade and then rebounds through the clown's left eye and out of his mouth and then gets picked up and swallowed by a wire-haired terrier which then excretes it into the centre of the bulls eye is a "hole in one" or a "foul stroke". There's a G & T riding on this one back at the 19th hole - what ho!

The only activity stupider than golf is watching it on the telly.

It is better to use the soil seed mixture than to replace the divot. Courses which provide golfers with that mix find it is used even in these uncivilised United States. And, in a links style course, one would think that the absence of ball marks on the green - due to the type of approach shot that is most successful - would ease the maintenance problem of divots in the fairway.

The irony is delecious. Golfers have learned from the Yanks in Iraq; the golfers themselves are destroying golf's most hallowed site. If this keeps up St Andrews will become a bog. Golfers's are their own worst enemies.
The UK won't need to make golf illegal as it did re: hunting with horses & hounds.
Golfers keep it up for you will turn Scotland, the brave, into the USA's 51st state. And Scots are doing it without Tony Blair to kow tow to GW Bush while selling the UK on the cheap as W's poodle.
It's doubtful that Gordon Brown can stop Scotland from becoming the USA's 51st state.
As W would say-golfers you've done a hell of a job on Scotland.

#23 What...!!! Have you failed to have your morning allotment of alcohol/drugs before writing today? Sad thing is you probably have logical cause for what you wrote but are just not up to sharing the reasons with the rest of us.

Anyway on golf. The sad thing about golf is that as it becomes more popular and affordable, you have more morons playing who don't know the first thing about history, customs, courtesies, and dignity. When playing the birth place of golf all golfers should treat the old lady with respect and reverence so she can continue to give a hallowed experience to all who come to enjoy her links in the future.

As for the management, ban the clubs that cause the damage. If it really gets bad they could go as far and draconian as to assign every golf party a monitor to ensure they play according to all rules including divot care. Our American golfers would cry and have a tantrum but F*^K them. If you have the money to spend on golf, you can have the courtesy to play respectfully and take care of the most famous course in the world.

I never really understood or was able to take a divot. I try to sweep it off the fairways, and my favourite club is an old, wooden shafted mashie niblick. I usually shoot around 100 but it doesn't matter if I'm enjoying myself. My last round of golf in Scotland was a game of pitch and putt at Ravenscraig Park in Kirkaldy in 1967 for 1/6 (I can't remember how to write 1 shilling, 6 pence).

At 42,000 rounds per year at 125 plus pounds per round I would think that St. Andrews could learn to live with divots.

'Astroturf', 'Astroturf', 'Astroturf' .... its the only sensible answer.

About golf to #24: Long distance diagnosis isn't your forte. It's impossible to have a serious discussion about golf for golf is a mere sport for the effite. Golf doesn't require the vigor & skill of crickett. Golf doesn't require playing while injured, the skill, or endurance of football (the UK variety of football), the ability to endure & give pain as rugby & Australian rules football do. It has been said that golf is an absurd way to ruin a pleasant walk & the implements one uses to play golf are ill suited to hitting a wee ball into a wee hole. We Yanks have contributed the powered golf cart which allows the unfit & the lazy to play golf.
I will grant that golf taught an English loving king a lesson about Scotch character when he outlawed golf for it was keeping men from archery practice. While there are a few archers & some still hunt game with a bow & arrow-it isn't a popular passtime. Firearms have taken over in the battleground & most hunters use firearms. There are still a few military uses for archery, very few. It may not be long before the so called animal rights mob try to get the use of the bow & arrow in hunting outlawed for it's most difficult to get a clean & quick kill with a bow & arrow. It's said that many animals die a slow & painful death when an archer shoots an animal. It's also possible that the animal rights mob will be joined by hunters who use fire arms in breaking up attempts to hunt by archers by using the tactics used to spoil riding to the hounds hunts. We may see an effort to make an archer who hunts into a criminal. Those of who used or still use traps to control varmints, hunt for substance by eating what we kill or selling the animal's fur may be censured by the animal rights mob because there are times when the animals caught in a trap die a very slow & painful death.
Golf survives as a popular sport in Scotland & is played the world over. The

#29
Sounds like you've been in the 19th hole a wee bit too long.

# 23 always blame the americans, do you ever stop moaning about other people, dont you think we just might have to take the blame ourselves sometime ? or are we all just perfect like you ...i see plenty of scotsmen on the courses not obeying the rules of golf, drinking swearing and making fools of themselves..

maybe you should look in a mirror sometime..

#23 about becoming there 51st state why do you think they would even want us? just what do we have to offer them? let me see drunken rangers and celtic fans by the bus load,, or maybe our drug addicts, or better yet how about our welfare system...how about our wonderful food, fish and chips out of a newspaper? grow up laddie if the yanks wanted us im sure the whole of scotland would sign up for becoming the 51st state.

Sod's law: duffers' divots threaten home of golf

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Hey folks

I believe Dragonhead has lost it, poor guy .

His Chinese Communist Masters have got to him

Read his #34 post.

As always Dragonhead ignors the fact, that in China its 1.3 biullion citizens are not allowed to vote.

GC

I think ye'could create some jobs here! Add a Quid on tae the Green Fees as a " Divot Tax " and hire a few more wee lads' and lassies' tae do the repairs.
Just a wee thought !!
wee jock

The divot problem on the links is a direct result of the Links Management organisation pushing too many golfers thro the courses 24/7/12. This is has now become a vicious circle because the Links Management organisation has grown into such a large operation that it needs the income from these visitors to pay its wages. No handicap is required to play all but the Old course and certainly many golfers who manage to get onto the Old do not play to 18 or below as officially required. Result - masses of divots on tees fairways and occasionally greens. When will the Links Management wake up.

if the old course cant keep up thats too bad. let it fall apart for that is the way of the world. maybe they should stop soaking those (rich) americans and keep it for the poor people.

It really is the fault of those naughty rich americans. I cannot believe st andrews will take their filthy lucre

Why is everybody blaming high handicappers for taking divots? It is usually the lower handicap players that take a divot because they are the ones that can hit down on the ball.