Aerification Update

We had two days this week scheduled for aerification, and given this year's weather, it should have come as no surprise that it rained on both of those days.

Monday morning we started aerifying greens, and by mid-day things were rolling along smoothly--until the skies opened up around 1:00, for about 15 minutes.  At that time, we had greens in every different phase of the operation.  What does that mean?

Here are the steps we take during the August aerification:

• Greens are aerified.
• Plugs are blown in around the edges.
• Plugs are removed and any clumps are blown from putting surface.
• Sand is applied.
• Sand is broomed into the holes.
• Green is a given a final blowing.

So, at the time it started raining, a few greens had all of these steps completed, while most were in some different stage, and others weren't even aerified yet.  The result was something of a mess.  Wet plugs aren't the easiest thing to cleanly remove, and as it got later in the day, some of the plugs that had been rained on began to dry and stick to the green's surface--this was not  a lot of fun. 

The rain also played havoc on getting the right amount of sand applied.  Some sand was nicely washed into the holes, other sand moved across the green from the rain, and in other areas it "bridged" on top of the holes.  It felt like Goldilocks again, with some greens looking like there was too much sand, others too little, and some just right.

On Tuesday we were ready to move on to tees...but Mother Nature had other plans in store for the morning.  After making a go of it on a handful of tees in the morning, thunder and lightning chased us off the course.  By the time the rain stopped it was too wet to even attempt pulling cores.

We ended the week with great weather and got started on a couple of fairways.  If nothing else, the rain earlier in the week ushered in some cool nights which should help the greens heal quickly.


Three days after aerification, the greens are starting to fill in.