Golf Blog Feature

Best Divot Repair Tool to Keep Your Courses in Great Shape

We all need take responsibility for keeping the courses we play in the best condition possible. One of the things that frustrates me most are unrepaired divots & ball marks, especially on the putting greens. A decent divot & ball mark repair tool can make all the difference. In today's game, we all look forward to top course conditions so we all need to pitch in and repair the damage our shots make. So we went in search of the best divot repair tool out there, please get one and maybe buy a few for your playing partners!

Recently we grabbed a few repair tools, and on a quiet evening, fixed several pitch marks to see which tool was the best. Scroll down for my guide on how to repair pitch marks on the green. A quick repair from all of us, means we can keep our courses from suffering unnecessary damage.

Finding the Best Divot Repair Tool

We tested different tools and looked at the following as a rough guide:

  1. How well does it do the job
  2. The durability of the product
  3. Quality of the product
  4. Value for money
  5. Other uses? (is it a multi-tool)

Top Rated - Insta Golf Spider Divot Tool

Take a moment and look at the Insta Golf Spider Divot Tool Insta repair tool with an integrated ball marker. With the Spider Divot Tool, you insert the metal legs into the ball mark and pull upward with a twist. That's it! The patented technology pulls the ball mark area flush with the green so the mark can heal.

The design of the Spider keeps the dirt out of your pocket, it includes a magnetic ball marker, and has a cool little club holder in the casing to keep your grips off the ground. The Spider is really nice and not overly expensive. Here's how it looks and works .......

Best divot and ball mark repair tool is the Insta Golf Spider Divot Tool

Insta Golf has a range of innovative products and some people are calling this the "best tool ever for those who actually bother to use them" (this made me chuckle). The design allows you to lift the turf up without damaging the area around the mark. As you can see this is simple and quick to use - just what we were looking for. Small innovative companies like Insta Golf help to keep golf moving forward. If only everyone had, and actually used, an Insta Golf Spider.

How to repair a ball mark correctly

As mentioned this is one of my biggest annoyances playing golf - divots and pitch marks left unrepaired. As the tool above shows, with the right equipment it's really easy to fix your marks - just pulling the grass back up with a pencil isn't doing the job properly!

Once you've found your pitch mark then follow my simple step by step guide to using this tool and repairing it to a decent standard. If you're not holding up play why not help out other golfers and repair any other marks that you see - it really is that quick and simple.

  1. Locate your pitch mark
  2. Work from the back of the mark - this is usually the highest point of the mark
  3. Move the grass back into the area where the divot/mark is
  4. Flatten with your putter

Done correctly this will allow the mark to repair itself and not leave lasting damage. Too often golfers move the soil and not the grass to repair the mark which leaves what looks like a burn mark on the green (as shown below). Depending on the weather conditions, a poorly repaired ball mark can take two to three weeks to heal and grow new grass.

Badly repaired golf ball mark

If you are using a more standard repair tool, like the usual ones with two long prongs on them, then here are some quick tips on how to use that kind of repair tool correctly. This is from the St. Andrews Links golf blog and if it's good enough for the home of golf, then it's good enough for all of us.

How to repair a divot or pitch mark correctly - Via the St Andrews blog

Hopefully, this blog will help all of us make the game better by improving the golf courses for everyone. Good luck with your next round!