Greens Aerification

It's a great time of year for growing healthy turf.  With cooler temperatures, comes good root growth, and a slowing of leaf growth.  We've received a lot of positive comments about the condition of the course in general, and the greens in particular.

With the greens rolling fast and smooth, the inevitable question arises:  "The greens are perfect...Why do you have to aerify them now?"

The short answer is that we don't have to aerify the greens right now.  The USGA recommends disturbing 15-20% of the greens surface annually, and there's more than one way, or time of year when this can be accomplished.  For example, some courses choose to wait until Thanksgiving before performing a very aggressive aerification.  While there's nothing wrong with this timing, the later one waits in the fall to aerify, the higher the likelihood that you'll spend the entire winter looking at un-healed holes. 

So, truth be told, we don't have to aerify the greens right now...but we do have to sometime.   If you stop and think about it, this is similar to how people must treat their cars.  As with the greens, the question can be asked, "Why do I need to take my car in for service when it's running great."  But most of us know that while you may be able to put off something like a tune-up for a short period of time, the longer you defer this practice, the greater the odds are that your vehicle is going to have problems down the road. 

In late October, we're right on the edge of being able to get the holes healed.  However, based on the past two years, this timing has worked well for us.  So, please try to keep in mind that the aerification we do today, is helping to set the foundation for a great 2013 golfing season.