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Ball mark or divot, that is my question

Tadashi70

Tadashi70

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So I hear a great deal of people refer to ball marks on the green as divots and they are repaired with divot tools. But I say a ball mark is a ball mark and not a divot. A divot is a smallish patch of grass taken from the earth while swinging a golf club. In Florida we fill these with sand and up north they are replaced. I do not replace a ball mark a repair it with a tee or ball mark fixer.

Why do people call a ball mark a divot? What do you call it?
 
its a ball mark and i call it a repair tool. i agree the divot is taken from swinging a club.
 
Ball mark for a round indentation in the ground make by a ball making contact with the green. Divot is the small slice of sod which is dislodged by a club head striking it with a descending blow.
 
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unrepaired ball marks on the green, I call them "idiot marks"
 
Sometimes, a piece of grass and dirt does gets totally dislodged when a ball hits the green. I'd say that piece of grass is a divot but the hole left is a ball mark.
 
Ball marks on the green caused by the ball striking the surface and leaving an indentation, or in some cases a crater.
Those ball marks are fixed using a repair tool, unless you are a tool and leave them unattended.
Divots are created by irons and wedges enroute to the green.
 
I really don't care what people call them as long as they fix them :) I've called them the wrong thing at times I know. I always thought the divot was the actual grass that got dug out, not the hole left from it.
 
I agree with your wise assessment panda.
 
I have seen divot holes on green and it pisses me off to no end.


To answer the OP, they are obviously ball marks, not divots (except when someone is an ass and takes a divot on a green). But they have been called divots for so long, that the tool to fix ball marks are called divot tools by (in my opinion) most people.

And many people call the hole that you fill with sand, or the hole that you put the clump of grass back in, "divots", when they are actually divot holes. A ball lands in a divot hole. It could land ON a divot.
 
I call them ball marks, but companies who make ball mark repair tools often market them as divot repair tools. Who am I to argue? :)
 
Why people call them divots? No idea.

We call them pitch marks over here, and we repair those with a pitchfork.
 
I repair my ball marks on the green and fill in my divots in the fairway.
 
I can't afford to golf on courses that actually have grass so I'm not sure what you speak of.
 
They're ball marks, but I use a divot tool to repair them. Go figure...
 
thankfully I'm not plagued with this dilemma much as my GIR is terrible and most the time i'm chipping onto the green. :)
 
Tadashi70 said:
So I hear a great deal of people refer to ball marks on the green as divots and they are repaired with divot tools. But I say a ball mark is a ball mark and not a divot. A divot is a smallish patch of grass taken from the earth while swinging a golf club. In Florida we fill these with sand and up north they are replaced. I do not replace a ball mark a repair it with a tee or ball mark fixer.

Why do people call a ball mark a divot? What do you call it?
Click to expand...

A mark on the green here has always been called a "pitch mark" but repaired with divot tool. A divot comes from a club right after striking the ball.......
 
I'm with you Freddie.

I'm also 100% positive that I fix my ball marks with a divot tool and not a ball mark tool.
 
I agree with the Panda on this one.
 
I'm on pandas side with this one
 
It's a ball mark. I use my divot tool to fix it.

I didn't say it made sense.
 
Yup - they're ball marks that are repaired with a divot repair tool. Just like everyone else, I don't get it either.

I make a point to always have my tool ready when I get on the green, even if I've chipped on, so I can repair other marks that I find.
 
Its a ball mark and a ball mark repair tool, even the USGA agrees with that. They do say though that in using it I become a toolee.

It became a divot repair tool when some bright bulb didn't know what it was when they added it to an online re-sellers database and a bunch of dim bulbs copied him.


Interesting that the USGA does research on ball mark repair and how long the green takes to heal. Check the links at the bottom of the article.
 
I must be the only one that called the depressions in the green made by a ball a "pitch mark". I'm also one of the few that doesn't use any sort of specialized tool to repair them, I just use a tee to repair them.

While we're on the subject, good video here on how to repair your pitch marks.

 
I've called them ball or pitch marks. But I believe I have referred to the tool as a divot tool, I guess because that's what it's (incorrectly) called by many companies.
 
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