News and Updates

Spring aerification starts next week and I wanted to give the membership an idea of what to expect.

I do not want this note to be a dissertation on the benefits of aerification but this is your annual reminder that it is good for the golf course. As anyone who has read my ramblings over the years has heard before, the process relieves compaction, promotes root growth, provides holes in which to apply soil amendments and fertilizer, removes thatch, allows for gas exchange, and that’s just scratching the surface. Blah, blah, blah…Sounds like a Superintendent trying to justify closing the course and negatively impact conditions, right? I get it. I promise that I don’t like aerification either, not only as the Superintendent, but also as someone who plays golf.

Now what’s interesting and what you might not realize, is that all the benefits described above usually can’t be accomplished, at least to their full potential, at once. A wider, shallower hole made with a solid tine allows more fertilizer and sand to be worked in to the surface than a hole poked with a tine that is made to pull a core. But a coring tine removes more thatch than a deep-tine hole displaces. But the deep-tine hole promotes greater root depth than either of the two aforementioned practices. As a member, you do not need to understand any of this, only that we have several different methods at our disposal to accomplish different goals.

It might surprise you that in my seven years here, we have never performed the exact same aerification process twice. There is a very good reason for this. Before each aerification, we do an in-depth analysis of each playing surface. This includes testing the physical traits of each surface profile to check organic matter levels at different depths, root density, air and water porosity, infiltration rates, and water holding capacity. We also perform soil tests that check the pH, cation exchange capacity, and specific nutrient content and availability. Think of all of this as a doctor reading a blood panel and reviewing imagery before coming up with a treatment plan for a patient. These data points are then combined with good old-fashioned gut feeling and experience and a unique plan is made for each aerification period.

I am happy to report that based on the metrics and our observations, the doctor has concluded that our processes have been extremely successful. Over the years, we have shown consistent improvement in every category that I believe is necessary to provide great playing conditions. This is a testament not only to work that my team has done, but the support of this membership.

The good news is that based on our observations from last season and over the winter, we do not believe there is a necessity to pull a core across the board on any playing surface this spring. Greens, tees, and fairways will all be deep-tined to a depth of six inches and solid tined to a depth of two and half inches. This is not to say that you will not see a cored area on the golf course. Rather instead of concentrating our efforts on getting every surface cored, cleaned, and ready for play, this allows us to put an increased focus on difficult to manage areas. For example:
 

• High cart traffic areas in the rough will be core aerified two times over to relieve compaction and given extra fertility to improve their recuperative capability.
• Fertilizer and soil amendments that would normally be directed at greens and tees, can now be used to improve difficult to manage areas in fairways and rough.
• The “one-pass” of short rough that encircles the green will be core aerified and rolled to make it more level and playable.

These are all programs that have been on mind for years but until this point, they were at the bottom of the priority list, and we did not have the resources to address them. Being able to shift our focus from major, course-wide cultural practices to more specific areas is a great sign of progress. It is too soon to say whether this will be possible each spring, but we are incredibly encouraged about where the golf course is at this point.