The Whistler Golf Club just completed its major fairway aeration project prior to opening. Aeration is critical to the overall health of all turf. Rather than letting a Golf Pro explain why I’ll steal a quote from Golf Industry News.
“Few operations show greater or more varied benefits than aeration, though why we use this term when the introduction of air into soil is only one benefit from a list as long as your arm. This list includes relieving compaction; restructuring deflocculated soils; improving drainage; break down thatch by oxidation; correcting stagnation; building up a healthy aerobic soil micro-life; encouraging deeper rooting grasses and thus drought resistance; curing dry patch; helping the absorption of top dressings without layering; and increasing turf resilience.
Few if any of these benefits are known to the average golfer. Sensible management practice avoids disturbing course presentation before major events on the golfing calendar but there is inevitably a clash between optimum soil conditions for aeration and the golfers enjoyment of the course. I will always cherish the exchange between an irate golfer and the head greenkeeper on a course I was visiting, who demanded “Can’t you leave the (adjective) greens alone for five minutes” to which his reply was “Certainly Sir, if you stop playing on them”.
So here was the process.
Step 1. Top dress the fairways. Giant sand spreaders are used to cast the sand evenly over the fairways where later it will be dragged into the holes left by the aerating.
>
Step 2. Aerate the fairways. Tractor aerators aerate the entire fairway and in play rough removing 1/2″ cores of thatchy turf.
Step 3: The Dragger hits the fairways and drags the topdressing sand into the cored holes in the fairways.
Step 4- The Mulcher eats the cores and spits them out removing the soil and leaving the tufts of grass.
Step 5 The Blower hits the fairways to remove the tufts of grass.
Over the next week the fairways will continue to get dragged to get the sand into the profile and the staff will continue raking cores. In three weeks or so the fairways will be in great shape with much healthier turf.
Nice work team.
AK