Winter Play - Divots and Ballmarks

I have been asked about filling divots over the winter and is it worthwhile?  The answer is yes, please continue to fill divots and fix ballmarks even during the winter months when we are dormant.

The reason is - even though the soil temperatures are low enough where seed will not germinate, the seed will start to absorb moisture and stay viable until the soil temperatures warm up again, and when that happens the seed will actually be ahead of the game and germinate faster compared to if we just went and filled all the divots this spring. 

Please watch the short video below about dormant seeding produced by a superintendent in CO and a mentor of mine that I once worked for as an assistant at the Country Club of the Rockies.

http://www.turfnet.com/page/turfnet-tv.html/_/kevin-ross/

Also, by filling divots it creates a smoother surface for our winter playing surface.

Lastly, please make sure to fix all ballmarks as it is even more critical this time of the year because the turf is not re-growing itself and we are not creating a new putting surface everyday.  Over the winter we are playing on the same putting surface day after day so it is even more critical to maintain the surface we have for the next day.