We were scheduled to aerify greens this past Monday and aerify fairways on April 7. We were able to aerify both this past Monday. The fairway aerification is contracted out and the contractor was looking for a dry course to work on, so we moved the process up a week and got it done. The Grounds staff has been putting in 14 hour days to get it all done before the rain hit. We finished up late last night, now the rain is helping us clean things up.
Monday morning we started by pulling plugs on the fairways and adding sand to the greens.
The greens were then solid tined with 3/4" tines about 4" deep.
Once the sand is dry, we can then drag it into the open holes
Later in the day, we took out our new greens roller and started rolling the green.
Wayne made sure all the irrigation heads on the fairways and greens were marked. One busted head by an aerifier can mean hours of labor in repairs and a couple hundred dollars in parts.
We had three machines going on the fairways, it's a quick process with the right equipment.
The cores were then turned over with a drag mat to aid in drying.
Once dry we then pulverize the plugs letting the soil fall back into the ground. This leaves only thatch left behind to be blown off the fairway.
We also verticut the fairways to break up any left over pieces of dirt.
The fairways are then blown off and the debris is vacuumed up. By last night the fairways were very clean. I'm glad this project is over for the membership. Withing a few weeks, all the holes will be filled in and we will have one long season uninterrupted by further aerification. Aeriying is a necessity on the golf course to provide the healthy tuf that is needed to withstand the stresses of the summer. Although it is a yearly occurance, there is never a good time to get this done in the golfers mind. Having this done before we even opened will make this year more enjoyable.
Any down time we had in the aerification process we spent on picking up sticks.
Today with the rain it gave us chance to work on some equipment cleaning.
Along with some housecleaning.
The Grounds staff did a great job this week, putting in a lot of hours making sure the aerification process was as clean as possible so that when we open, you will hardly notice.
