It's that time of year again! The greens at Sugar Creek were aerified on September 21 with a deep tine machine that loosens up the ground up to 8 inches deep. Aerifying is essential to the long term health of a green. Here are a few pictures of the process.We started spreading sand before the deep tine machine this year. This helped it dry out before brushing. Here is the deep tine machine on the first green:Topdressing the greens:In this photo, you can see the brush in action on the 5th green and the tractor aerifying the 7th green:After brushing as much sand as possible into the holes, we used some custom built brush reels on the old greens mower. These reels have a bedknife set to a little under our usual height of cut. Brushes then come around to pick up extra sand and debris and collect it in the baskets. These brush reels help to create a puttable surface:After the first day, the greens look something like this area:
We try hard not to over-sand them even if all the holes aren't full to the top. It is easy to add more sand later but very difficult to get rid of too much. After testing many spots, the holes almost never interfer with putting after we roll the greens out. At least in my opinion, excessive sand is more difficult to putt on and can delay recovery.
At the end of the process, we used a pull behind roller to smooth out any bumps. One of the difficulties of dealing with recently aerified greens is dew in the morning. The next two mornings were too dewy to mow or roll the greens without making them clumpy and unputtable. Instead, we will be brushing and mowing them in the afternoon after they have dried out.
They are putting smoothly and especially in the dry afternoon are almost too fast. Some golfers even told me they loved putting them the afternoon after they were done. Others said they liked the challenge of the different speed. I hear a rumor that some golfers are not big fans of aerification, but I haven't run into them yet . . . Well, maybe one or two!
