Aerification and Forward Tee Work
The weather cooperated this Monday and Tuesday and we were able to get a nice aeration done to greens. We started with a 1/2 inch deep tine machine mounted to a tractor. This aeration was set to a depth of approximately 10 inches. This will allow the greens to breath. Basically the aeration allowed for the greens to release gases and allow oxygen into the rootzone. It also helps with infiltration and deep rooting. Then we followed this process up with a small coring tine set on a tight spacing with what is called a quad tine head. This enables us to put 60 aeration tines on the aerator instead of the normal 24 when using big tines. This enabled the agronomy team to pull a ton of material out of greens, but with a smaller tine that will be quick to heal. Once the cores were removed the team blew and shoveled the plugs off of the greens. The greens were then topdressed and the sand brushed into the aeration holes. As our greens begin to age the deep tine aeration is something we will be doing more of in future years especially as we go into winter. After the greens aeration was complete soil amendments were added and watered in.
Short video of deep tine machine in action:
Fairway aeration started on Wednesday. Based on the weather forecast I made the decision just to solid tine the fairways. With Wednesday's cloudy and misty conditions, overnight rain on Wednesday, and rain on Thursday this was definitely the right decision. Once we get a cut onto fairways Friday you will hardly ever know fairways were aerated.
Over the course of the greens aeration the aerator operator tends to walk approximately 13 miles a day with much of this walking backwards while operating the machine. Marcelo Barrios did all the aeration and walking over the two days by himself.
While aeration was occurring we broke ground on some small tee renovations to the forward tee on 6 and the forward tee on 8. Both of these tees will be leveled, enlarged, and properly aligned. I am hoping to have these two tees complete and sodded by Wednesday, May 6th. If this is the case we should be able to open the tees around the last week of May. For the time being, temporary tees have been cut on 6 that accommodate the purple and orange markers and a temporary tee on 8 for the orange markers.
While it is always important to fix ballmarks it is never more important then after aeration. Greens will be soft and extra care should be taken to fix ballmarks. This will help prevent poa contamination from coming in as well.
