Replace your divots, fix your ball marks, rake the sand. Golfers know the basics of course maintenance etiquette yet are still making a common error that one superintendent calls his “worst nightmare.”

Odds are you’ve seen the damage at your course: Around the tee boxes and near the greens, the grass around cart paths is often dead or nonexistent, the result of golfers leaving two wheels on the path and two off.

Why is this such a common mistake, what damage does it cause and why should golfers care? Those are the questions we put to two top supers: Jason Meersman of the Patterson Club in Fairfield, Conn., and Paul Dotti of Arcola Country Club in Paramus, N.J.

Courtesy of the club false Private Arcola Country Club Paramus, NJ, United States 4.6 65 Panelists

Big and brawny Arcola Country Club continues to get better year after year—as competitors found out at the 2022 U.S. Amateur when it co-hosted stroke-play qualifying with neighboring Ridgewood Country Club. Robert Trent Jones redesigned the course in the 1950s after the state acquired part of the property through the construction of the nearby Garden State Parkway, which eliminated four existing holes. Paul Dotti, the club’s Director of Grounds since 2009, has conducted some major projects to elevate Arcola’s stature in the state, performing major drainage work, tree removal, and rebuilding and reshaping bunkers and fairways. Dotti’s crew maintains some of the best conditioned playing conditions in the tri-state area—a bold statement given the depth of great layouts with incredible maintenance staffs—but on any given day, golfers will encounter firm-and-fast conditions with putting surfaces rolling above 14 on the Stimpmeter. The championship venue also hosts the annual Arcola Cup, which hosts some of the best amateur players in the area. Explore our full review

Golf Digest: Jason, I’ve seen so much damage around cart paths recently, what’s going on?

Meersman: Oh, my God, it drives me up a wall. You could have a hat that has a picture of a golf cart half on and half off a cart path. It’s a superintendent’s worst nightmare.

The issue usually happens around turns. The cart path turns at the apex, and that’s where people will cheat. They’re always trying to get from point A to point B to as quickly as possible. I always say we’re like cows, so we’re going to go from point A to point B unless something interferes with us.

Edwin Tan

Paul, do you notice this issue as well?

Dotti: Yeah, absolutely. You’ll often see curbing around the tees and greens to try and prevent that from happening, but especially around those areas, that’s where golfers tend to want to just pull two wheels off the path for some reason. I don’t know why it happens, but it is definitely a concern.

The issue with it is that over time on a course that has a lot of carts, you’re going to start to get a dirt strip along the edge. Essentially, the cart path just creeps out another foot or two feet, and it’s usually just dirt because the ground is so compacted from the golf carts. Then, that area doesn’t get irrigated properly and since it’s compacted, the grass won’t grow back.

It’s a baffling thing, I don’t know why people do it. When people go to their houses, they don’t pull two wheels off their driveway, but when they’re in a golf cart, they do it. It’s really bizarre.

What can superintendents do to try and get golfers to stay completely on the path?

Meersman: Some supers will put stakes at the apex of turns to try and prevent golfers from cutting the corner. If you don’t have those, then golfers will just cut the corner.

Dotti: Exactly. You’ve got to put some kind of curbing or stakes. An issue with stakes, though, is that they quickly become labor intensive to move when you’re trying to mow. If you don’t move them, they’ll get run over by the mowers, so we have to get them out of the way.

Some supers will put a layer of brick pavers over the area that’s been damaged by the carts. That expands the cart path a little further. But what you’ll notice is that golfers will just go a little further off the brick paver, so you get the same issue.

Unless there’s an actual hard curb line there, it’s a hard thing to solve.

false Private The Patterson Club Fairfield, CT, United States 3.8 30 Panelists The Patterson Club dates to 1929, when General Electric Co. employees organized a Dining and Social Club with 20 charter members. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed course opened nearly 20 years later in 1947 on a new site in Fairfield, Conn. Today, the course is one of the best in the area, having hosted the state’s Open and Amateur, as well as many numerous Metropolitan Golf Association events. The course makes captivating use of the elevation changes, including at the up-and-over finishing hole, where a speed slot can add 40 yards to a well-placed drive. View Course

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com