Green and fairway aeration + 8th tee update
- matthewbehl
- Apr 25
- 3 min read
Greens and fairway aeration is scheduled to start on Monday, April 28th and continue through Tuesday, April 29th. The course will be closed for these two days. The agronomy department will update on Tuesday evening about course availability for Wednesday. There is a good possibility we will need a portion of the day on Wednesday to complete depending on if any equipment issues arise.
Greens will be topdressed with sand first and then aerated with a 3/4 inch solid tine. Once aerated the greens will be dragged, topdressed again, dragged and push broomed to fill the holes with sand. This process has been very effective for the agronomy team to introduce the greatest amount of sand into the profile.
Fairways will be aerated with a 3/4 inch hollow tine and cores will be dragged and blown to the center of fairways to be vacuumed up.
I have received quite a few questions about the timing of our aeration. First off, I try to time aeration with the first good push of growth in the spring to minimize the recovery time and disruption. If I had aerated earlier this spring the membership would still be putting over holes with the cold temperatures and poor growing conditions we have experienced. Greens would virtually be healing at the same time whether I aerate now or earlier.
Also our turf variety (bentgrass) on greens is very slow to wake up in the spring. Aerating early can set them back and also allow for more poa annua encroachment. We also have applications specific to our greens that need to go out before we aerate and those are based on growing degree day's.
Lastly, our irrigation system plays a small role on when we aerate. We start each season with a good deal of irrigation problems and have to do many inhouse repairs and contract out repairs. This is a very time consuming process. Aeration can't take place until we have a fully functional irrigation system or we risk turf loss.
There are many other agronomy and labor decisions that go into the timing of our aerations. What works for one course might not work for another. Every course is trying to accomplish different things based on their needs. Honestly, the agronomy team should be aerating greens more then we currently do. The agronomy team is hopeful some new equipment might be headed our way in order to help in accomplishing this. A little disruption now goes a long way in preventing major disruption down the road.
The finishing touches on the 8th white/purple tee are taking place over the next few days. The tee has been laser leveled and a shelf on the left side has been formed to provide an easier enter/exit to the tee. Finishing touches will be ongoing and I hope to have sod the on the ground late next week or early the following week.
Spring is the agronomy's team busiest time of year especially for spray technician Jim Kindler. Jim is making applications through out the golf course. Virtually some product will be going down to every inch of this golf course over the coming weeks with a lot already being accomplished. Applications basically will be going out daily for the next 5 weeks until we fall into our regular spray maintenance program for the season. Irrigation technician, Marcelo Barrios is busy making repairs and enhancements to the irrigation system. While not working on the irrigation system he is watering in the applications that need water after applying. Juan Deleon has been diligently keeping up with the variety of seed and sod projects we have on the golf course. All of you know the time, attention, and effort assistant Michael Curtin puts into the golf course, but this can't go without mention. Once again Michael is working long hours as well as the entire agronomy team.
