Saving Green

The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — What is most feared by a golf course superintendent?

• A. Heat
• B. Ball marks
• C. Gophers (”They're like the Viet Cong — Varmint Cong”)
• D. Ball marks being repaired w/ ball mark repair tool

If you answered D, then you nailed it, and possibly ripped up some roots, while killing some of the green doing so.

All of these answers are feared, but can be controlled, however what can not be controlled is how someone repairs a ball mark on a green.

“If you ask 100 people at a golf course how they repair a ball mark, you will get 60 different answers,” said 5-time PGA Tour winner, and Oklahoma-native Danny Edwards.

Not all are correct, which is why Edwards is trying to do something about it, bringing his new product GreenFix to most major golf courses, taking all the guess work out of it, while saving golf courses thousands of dollars while doing so.

GreenFix is now mandatory at Oak Tree Golf Club, as well as Southern Hills, Flint Hills, Medinah and Bully Rock.

The reason is simple. It is an easy product to use, on the most memorable feature a golf course has to offer. Ball marks are deadly to greens. If a ball mark is left un-repaired, it leaves a dent in the green, while it kills the grass. If a ball mark is repaired incorrectly, it can cost golf courses big money in repairs, only to have the problem repeated several times daily.

“We held a tournament at Oak Tree in April, where myself, Mark Hayes, Gil Morgan and Doug Tewell, divided up 150 members and gave them an orientation on how to use this tool,” said Edwards. “Oak Tree once did a count of 2,500 ball marks on their greens, and after the first year of making it mandatory to use GreenFix, they reported around 500 ball marks. The numbers are just staggering.”

Edwards compares GreenFix to soft spikes on golf shoes.

“Soft spikes are now mandatory on just about every golf course you play at. For a long time they were made optional. Nationally, enough benefits were found using soft spikes to make it mandatory. Metal spikes were rough on greens. If you played behind someone that wore metal spikes, it would really affect how you played that hole,” said Edwards.

It has taken the former Oklahoma State standout six years to get GreenFix to the position it is in today.

“This has been monumental to me. I’ve invested several millions of dollars in this. If I knew how much work I would have to put into this project before hand, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Golf has a traditional culture. And it is very hard to convince someone that they need to make a change,” said Edwards.

So, how does this product save golf courses money?

“When you play golf, what is it that you remember the most? It’s the greens. You remember how the greens played and the condition of the greens. Every golf course wants to have the best greens. If you don’t, you lose the everyday customer and the weekend golfer. Real estate values fall, because if you’re going to live on a golf course, you want it to be in the best condition that it can be in,” said Edwards.