"But such ambitious plans often have disappointing results," Carlson concedes.

Superintendents have been recycling grass clippings for many years with varying degrees of success, but they all face the same problems, Carlson notes. "The areas where you dump grass clippings turn unsightly and smell awful," Carlson explains. "And because most clubs are on limited acreage, they can't hide such eyesores."

For Carlson, recycling grass clippings was just that - a rotten-stinking mess that was offensive to the senses. And then there was the wait.

"Usable divot mix takes months or years to develop," Carlson says. "One solution is to convert to tub grinders, but many clubs find that a hard sell to golf committees because they are expensive."

The problem

What was Carlson going to do about his recycling plan gone awry? The grass-clipping piles were growing, the stink was getting worse, and the eyesore had become even more painful to look at.

"We needed a usable divot mix that could be made quickly," Carlson says.

Options considered

To no avail, Carlson and his crew tried turning over piles of clippings in hopes of stifling the suffocating smell and speeding the recycling process. Then they added soil to the clippings in hopes of creating a usable mix. "But that only made the mixture too soggy and hard to turn over," Carlson says.

Solution chosen

After the unsuccessful soil experiment, Carlson says a crew member suggested substituting sand for the soil. The crew found that sand easily absorbed the moisture created by the decomposed grass clippings, but the mixture didn't become soggy and heavy. Sand also snuffed out the stink, and more importantly, it speeded up the process of making divot mix.

"We had usuable divot mix in 30 days of mixing our first batch of sand and grass clippings," Carlson notes.

Outcome

The crew added greens clippings daily to three yards of sand. They turned the pile five times a week until the material was ready for screening and application to the tees as a divot mix.

There was enough material to fill divots on all tees, including the driving-range tees. Damaged areas on the fairways were also repaired. The tees germinated in seven days.

Comments

Recycling greens clippings with sand can be efficient, without creating an unsightly and foul-smelling section of property, Carlson says.

Carlson suggests locating a recycling center in a central area that's accessible for workers to dump clippings. He admits that they might not journey too far to dump clippings if the recycling center is not nearby.

Return on investment

The primary cost of the procedure was the sand. Carlson's crew used leftover bunker sand. They screened the sand prior to mixing it with the clippings.

In other words, the project was easy on the budget. It may only require a few hours of additional labor weekly to prepare the mix prior to divot repair, Carlson says.