Aerification and Transition

AERIFICATION

Yesterday we began the cultural program of aerifying our golf  holes to promote healthy turf and firmer turf. We are doing this program differently this summer than in years past. Previously, we did not close any holes  for the aerification of fairways and rough. We would aerify and  clean up each hole before we moved on to  the next hole. The idea was that this caused minimal disruption to an individual's round of golf because they would experience only one hole which was " messed up".  Unfortunately we were unable to be as efficient as we would have liked and did not aerify each hole as completely as we would liked.  This year we are closing nine holes at a time so we can do a more thorough job on each " nine".  We have blocked off a period of two weeks for each of the four " nines".  It may not take the full two weeks to accomplish our work. We will open the closed" nine" as soon as we are finished and move on to another nine holes. For the next several weeks we will only have 27 holes available for play.

The process of aerification is common to all golf courses. The intensity of that aerification will vary. Anyone who skips greens aerification is asking for trouble. The regular aerification of bentgrass fairways is also crucial to their health. Bermuda grass fairways can thrive wthout aerification but their playing characteristics will suffer over time.  The optimum time to aerify bermuda grass fairways is the summer when they are actively growing.  They respond well to aerification, verticutting and topdressing.

Since it is our goal to provide excellent playing conditions at Forest Creek, we decided to undertake a very intensive aerification and topdressing program of our fairways and roughs this summer.  We felt that the inconvenience of closing one" nine" of our 36 hole complex was offset by the opportunity to improve the health of our turf and the playing characteristics of our fairways.

We are using pull behind aerifiers with 3/4 inch tines on the fairways and rough and walk behind aerifiers with 1/2 tines on the tees and approaches. We are chopping the plugs to add mineral matter back into the soil profile.  We are topdressing the approaches and wet areas with sand to promote a firm playing surface.
The opening of columns in the turf canopy with aerification promotes a health plant by allowing the exchange of water and air into the soil profile. This process involves the use many pieces of turf  maintenance equipment and many different personnel performing different tasks.  The turf is aerified, the plugs are broken up, the remaining thatch is removed, the turf is then mowed, and finally appropriate areas are topdressed.. The goal is firm fast healthy fairways.

Aerifying around greens

Aerifying fairways

Aeifying rough

Plugs in fairway

Chopping plugs

Topdressing fairways

TRANSITION

The transition of the South golf course from overseeded ryegrass to bermuda grass has been progressing nicely.  The aerification process we are engaging in now, helps with transition.  The aerification of areas which have been damaged from spring dead spot is a practice recommended by the universities and the USGA to promote recovery from this disease.  Other areas which will benefit from this practice are areas which show damage from excessive traffic when the turf was dormant and areas which are weak from winter time shade. The following three pictures show improvement in the Long Tee on 17 South over the last several weeks. While there is still need for further growth of the Bermuda, it is  moving and continuing to cover the bare areas.  We feel we are on schedule for a good recovery.

June 20

June 26

July 6

TEE WORK

The closing of the front nine for aerification has allowed us to do work on the second hole leveling the Short Tee.  When a narrow tee is used extensively and divots are filled with sand in the same general area for a number of years, that area will become "crowned". We want our tees to be flat. They are generally built with 1% slope right to left. They should not have a hump in the middle. To fix this, we removed the sod from the tee, graded the surface back to flat and placed the sod back onto the tee. It should be ready to use when we open this nine back up for play.