An angst-filled August

With cool-season turf roots at their shortest of the entire year in August, it is always a month that presents some challenges.  However, this month will be one we won't soon forget.  Fairway aerification was scheduled for this past week, but given the saturated conditions, little sunlight, and high humidity, we weren't able to follow the usual procedure.

Typically, we pull the plugs, allow them to dry, then grind them, which separates the soil from the thatch.  We then pick up the thatch and blow the fairway off.  However, with no drying occurring, we were forced to pick up and remove the entire aerification plug from most of the fairways.  This is much more labor-intensive, slower, generates a ton (hundreds of tons actually) of material, and with no soil being left, it leaves the holes open.  Therefore, until completely grown over, these holes will tend to dry out quickly, and need to be kept moist.

The picture below is the kind of hit or miss (mostly hit) pop-up storms we had to deal with.  If we pulled plugs in the morning and left them on the fairway waiting to dry, a storm like this would have made a muddy mess.

Never good when you could hold a swim meet on the practice tee.

On a positive note, we are always working to improve the aerification process, and a change this year made a real difference.  We abandoned the large, tractor-mounted aerifier on the fairways, instead using the smaller walk-behind models.  While it meant a whole lot of walking for the guys, with mushy conditions, this was a good move.

Once again, the Grounds staff and Pro Shop team, worked their tails off to get this done.  We had a brief taste of some cooler nights this past weekend, and look forward to more of the same in the coming weeks!