Greens Aeration Complete

We completed our 2nd greens aeration on Tuesday. I know that golfers universally hate aeration but it truly is good for the turf. Our primary goal is modifying our greens rootzones by removing the core of soil and replacing it with sand. This will make the greens more reliable over time.

For the green staff, it is a long day. The process goes something like this: cut new hole in approach and place flag there, aerate green, pick up cores with core harvester, topdress, verticut to help work in topdressing, brush to work topdressing into aerator holes, blow off excess sand and debris, roll green to smoothen, water to reduce stress, and finally cut a new hole in green and open it for play. This process gets repeated 20 more times (18 greens + putting green + far end greens) with hopefully no breakdowns or bad weather. We start aerating at 6:00am and don't finish until about 4:30. I can assure you that this labour intensive process is disliked by the staff as much as the golfers. Well ALMOST as much - golfers probably hate it more. Try to remember though, that we are doing it for your benefit. We will do our best to get the greens back in shape as quickly as possible.