What’s your Golf IQ?

In case you hadn’t noticed, golf is booming. More than 26 million Americans played on a “traditional” course last year. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve felt the impact of all these players on your course, probably by the condition in which it is left at the end of the day.

I know that you’re more than capable of cleaning up after these hordes of newbies and wannabes. What I don’t know is who is going to educate these golfers — and the millions who’ve been playing for a long time but don’t show any more smarts — about how to conduct themselves on the course.

There are players out there right now who could learn a few things about what I’ll call “self-maintenance.” So, tack this up in the locker room, print it in the club newsletter, put copies on every cart or tattoo it on their foreheads. This is your chance to make the game better for everyone — yourself included.

A Letter To Golfers:

As the course superintendent, my job and that of my crew is to make sure the golf course is in the best possible shape. But we need your help. There are more golfers and more rounds being played than ever before, and how you treat the course affects every golfer who follows you.

The “Golden Rule” is simple: Leave the golf course better than you found it. If you do, not only will your game benefit but so will that of your fellow golfers. And the course will remain in good shape longer. Here’s what you can do all around the course …

Practice range. Whether you’re fixing your swing flaws or just ingraining them, please keep your practice to a small space. It’s like learning to dance: Make a box and keep it tight.

Teeing grounds. This is the only place on the course where you can create your own lie. Why do golfers, with the ability to place the ball however they want, still leave holes on the tees the size of a shovel?

When you take more than a little scrape of turf from the tee, fill it in and fix it. There’s usually a bucket or box of sand by one of the tee markers. Shake some sand over the hole, step on it and smooth it out. This is especially helpful on par 3s, where there are likely to be more scrapes because players typically use irons. But it happens everywhere. Should you get to the tee and someone before you has left a small bomb crater, please fill it in for them and hope there’s such a thing as conditioning karma.

Pick up your tee and any broken tees on your way off the teeing ground. Then throw them in the trash. It doesn’t just look bad. Those broken pieces of wood and plastic can wreak havoc with our mowers. And please throw your water-soaked cigars and cigarette butts in the trash, too.

Fairways. When you make a scar, look for your divot and replace it. If there isn’t a box or jar of sand on the cart, find the shrapnel from your divot and fill in the hole as best you can.

Bunkers. When you’re done playing from the bunker, it should look as if you were never in it. It should only take a minute or two to rake the bunker level and smooth your footprints.

Watch the caddies on TV clean up after their pros. They know how to rake a bunker properly. True, you’re not playing for a million dollars, but clean up a bunker half as well as they do and you’ll be ahead of just about everyone else.

Putting greens. Fix ball marks. Yours, your buddy’s and any others that you see on the green.

Once again, you can learn something by watching pro golf on TV: Note how the players and caddies look for ball marks and fix them as soon as they walk onto a green. If you don’t know the right way to do it, ask your superintendent or pro. They’ll be glad to show you.

Golf carts. If the golf course has a cart path, use it unless specifically told not to or that it’s OK to drive elsewhere. Just because the fairway looks wide open doesn’t mean there’s not a broken sprinkler head, new sod, crushed drain line, intruding tree root or a hole waiting to snap an axle — or your ankle.

Obey the signs. When you arrive at the tee or green, leave the cart where it’s supposed to go, usually on the path or a marked area. Every time you pull off the path to get closer to the green, you’re impacting the turf, eventually wearing it down to the soil.

Everything above is common sense and backs up that one simple rule: Leave the course better than you found it. For all of us.