Aerification Update

It's that time of year again when we begin the very necessary practice of aerifying greens.  I always get the comment "Do you have to do it now?".  And the answer is a very firm "yes, it must be done now".

We have always tried our best to work around the golf schedule and begin aerification in mid to late September to avoid disappointing members and guest.  The downside to this is that we are left with just a few weeks to aerify 36 holes of greens, tees, fairways and a learning center with very little good weather, shorter days and a smaller staff.  When it rains this time of year we not only lose that day  of aerification, but the following 1-3 days as well while things dry back out.

This season we got an early start on the process with both Lake Course tees and greens being done before Labor Day.  This is the ideal time of year for aerification in our region of the country.  The days are still warm enough to dry the course quickly and the nights have started to cool off, lowering the soil temperature to a point where the turf is starting to grow aggressively again and the holes fill over quickly.  The following pictures are from one of the Lake Course greens.  The first picture is of the green after the cores were removed and the second is the same green one week after it was topdressed.  As you can see, the holes are filling over nicely.  If  we had done this in mid to late September, it would take two weeks to get to this point and would have been a disruption for a longer period of time.

We were able to get through the Hill Course greens this week.  #1-8 were deep tined and the rest were done in the traditional manner but the topdressing was rained out yesterday and today.  Hopefully we will be able to get it done early next week before the holes close up too much.  After that we will continue on with Hill Course tees, fairways on both courses, and the learning center.