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. 

Breathe!!!

Every green has drain tiles running underneath that gets rid of water and excess gasses. Over time these drains can get clogged causing problems on the greens. As you can see here the drains have been capped underground allowing no way to reach them. Using maps we have been able to locate the drains on a few of our problem greens and bring them to the surface. The next step is to blow air or flush water through if needed to make sure the drain gets cleared.

 'Why is it that every time the greens start to get in perfect condition, those guys go and poke holes in them?' Just one comment that I overheard this week. Yes it is already time for aerification! Monday March 21st the front nine will be closed, and Tuesday the 22nd the back nine. We have started this year with a light verticut. The lines that you will see in the greens are where multiple blades tickle the turf pulling out part of the thatch or organic layer.

             

One of our final winter projects was cleaning up the underbrush behind 16 green. Some of the shrubs were tall enough that they were in play from 17 blue and black tee box. It was no easy task, taking multiple days and requiring tractors to remove some of the larger shrubs and stumps. Eventually we hope to add mulch and tidy up the rock wall along the cart path. With aerification less than two weeks away, all winter projects are on schedule to be completed!

It has been a little over a week since we have completed our zoysia spray. As you can see from the photo below, we are already getting some great results! This is close to the green on hole 2 where we decided to use plywood to help us cover tight corners. By using boards we were able to spray a nice clean edge along the collar. Hopefully we continue to see great results and remove most of the cool season grasses out of the zoysia. 

Shown here is frost damage. Everyone did an awesome job this year, as we did not have any human frost damage on the turf. However, we did have a few greens where animals walked across and caused damage. Though we have minimal control over the geese, deer, or coyotes; we ask that if you are walking your dogs during frost days, please refrain from letting them on the greens.