TAMPA, Fla. - The FSGA and Clicgear have recently joined forces to educate junior golfers about golf course etiquette and caring for the course. Clicgear and the FSGA have partnered together to supply junior golfers with sand bottles to use during events. The Clicgear bottle is universal and can be used on every type of push cart and simply hooks onto the side, making it easy for junior golfers who are walking to have access to sand that they can put in their divots.
One of the biggest complaints from host golf courses during FJT events is that junior golfers do not fill their divots throughout the tournament and the course is left destroyed once play is done. With the new rules of golf allowing committees the right to monitor code of conduct by competitors and penalize competitors for breach of the code of conduct, the FSGA will be implementing a policy that strictly enforces proper course etiquette.
Going into effect starting in 2019, every junior golfer in a Florida Junior Tour event will be required to have some form of bottle/bag that has divot mix to help fill in their divots throughout their rounds. By enforcing this policy, juniors will be held accountable for filling their divots and other course etiquette practices. Players can now be penalized for improper course etiquette practices or other breaches of the code of conduct. The new code of conduct for the Florida Junior Tour can be found here.
Not only do we want our junior players to fill their divots, we want them to understand how to correctly fill them. When filling a divot, the sand or mix should fill the divot until it is even with the base of the turf surrounding the divot. Under filling divots can cause poor lies for people playing behind you and over filling divots can cause damage to maintenance equipment such as mowers.
The goal for the FSGA is to teach all junior players how to take care of the course and how to properly do it. Leaving the course in the same shape, or even better condition than when you played it is the ideal scenario. It is important to implement these practices into junior golfers so that they can continue to care for the course for the duration of their careers. Caring for the course is a vital part to the game of golf and is an essential part of the game that every golfer needs to learn.
Below are some videos that can be referenced to help learn the proper way to take care of the course:
