Aerification!!

Welcome to aerification week! It was a long couple of days out here on the Ridge. Though Monday morning was held off about an hour and a half due to a frost delay, we were able to finish all 20 greens within two days! With holes spacing 2.5x2 inches and an optimum depth of 5 inches, there were about 4 million holes punched in the bentgrass overall. I have taken pictures of every step of the process along the way, and added a note on the bottom explaining what is happening. 

Here you see Jose making the first few passes on #1 green. 

Samples of the cores being taken. Usually I would add keys or a golf ball to show comparison of size. Like I said, the holes are 2.5x2 inches.

Uriel on our core harvester. The cores travel up a conveyor belt to the back of the workman where Eduardo will then spread them around.

I tried to squeeze the whole process in one picture. Victor and Daniel would then follow with backpack blowers opening up more holes and blowing loose cores off to the sides. 

Superintendent Andy Klein was our topdress man. Making many trips back and forth to the shop, as it took roughly three workman loads of sand per green. 

Once the sand was on the green, Wes took a steel mat around to disperse the sand more evenly. 

I then put a double roll on each green to try and smooth them up before the final drag the next morning.

Finally it was my job, along with some help from Letty, to take a finer coco mat and try to fill in all remaining open holes. The greens were then rolled one more time, followed by fifteen minutes of water. 

This is the ideal finished product.