Aeration Complete



After getting off to a late start Monday morning due to the rain Sunday evening, we managed to complete all aerating and topdressing yesterday.  This did not come without a great effort put in by the crew.  We started aerifying at 4:00am, all greens were aerified and cores cleaned up by 12:00pm.  With the sun shining and the forecast calling for rain the rest of the week, we pushed hard to get the topdressing process done and by 6:30pm after 14.5 hours, everything was complete.  In the days to come, the rain or irrigation water will push the sand down into the holes and weather pending we will be doing another application of topdressing in combination with our bentgrass interseeding program. Below are some pictures of the process from start to finish.  

 Sarah aerating putting green

Removing cores

Joey applying topdressing sand

Kendra and Sarah working sand into holes

Ryan blowing sand into holes

Andy rolling

Finished product

Aeration - Update

After months of planning and weeks of assembling and preparing equipment, the one thing we can not control does not cooperate, the weather . We were scheduled to begin Sunday at 3:00pm and as the staff started to show up so did the rain. Within 30 minutes it was a steady rain and according to the radar was not going to pass.  As of 4:00pm aeration was called off and postponed to the following day.  The crew will regroup at 4:00am Monday morning and aeration will begin.

Rain is definitely not what is wanted prior to aeration as greens become wet and saturated, thus cores do not pick up as well and topdressing sand is much more difficult, if not impossible at times to work into the holes.  With the intention of completing the process as efficient as possible three aerators will be used. Greens will be cored, picked up and then topdressing will start.  The back seven holes will remain closed, as previously planned, until noon and as such we will focus our topdressing efforts on those greens first.  Once the back seven are finished we will be completing the remaining greens by going in reverse order starting on hole 11 and finishing on hole one. As indicated in an earlier post we work in reverse order in an effort to minimize interruption to golfers.  Again, this is all weather dependent and so far we have not found much fortune in such.  None the less, we will try to make this process as quick and painless as possible.

Aeration

If the weather cooperates, the first aeration of greens will take place Sunday June 12 starting at 3:00pm.  The tee will be closed at this time to make the process go as efficient and smooth as possible.  The intention is to have greens One thru 11 aerated, cores picked up and topdressed by the end of day on Sunday and the first tee open again Monday morning. The process will continue Monday on greens 12 thru 18.  During this time the back 7 holes will be closed until all aeration and topdressing is completed. This, if everything goes well and the weather cooperates, will be approximately 12:00pm. We will be using 5/8" coring tines followed by topdressing with straight sand.  Once the sand is applied and has time to dry on the green a steel mat will be dragged across with the intention to fill all holes.  This year we will be using a turbine blower as a next step to try and get as much sand in the holes as possible as well as assist with any debris that has been left behind.  The final step is the green being rolled and a heavy watering that night.
 
I have attached an animation below which also explains the aeration process quite well