Results of Aerification

This past Spring we aerified the putting greens very aggressively. We had several reasons why we chose to do this

Our timing of aerification was much sooner then we would have liked to go this season, however, golfing events in April and the availability of the aerifiers that we had rented dictated the timing. If you recall we had skipped an aerification in the Fall of 2012 because of the complements that we had received on how good the quality of the playing surface was and with all the play we were receiving we wanted to give the best conditions possible before play had slowed down for the winter months.

However by skipping that aerification that meant we were behind with our cultural practices and needed to play catch up. That's why we chose to have bigger holes on a tighter spacing.  That guaranteed us decent removal of organic matter and to be able to make many holes for roots to drive down into the soil profile and to be the healthiest that they could be.  

Today while changing cups on the greens I came across this as we were putting the plug back into the old cupping location. 

#1 green - 5.5" roots broken off when the plug was removed

This shows you the benefits of what and why we did what we did with regards to aerification. Aerification on the playing surfaces throughout the golf course for us is very much like a marathon runner. You just don't wake up one morning and decide you a going to go run 26.2 miles, let alone break any records doing so.  A marathon runner trains, and train and trains to be able to make that distance run.  The same applies for us with regards to making the turfgrass on our playing surfaces the best they can be.  We are essentially training the turfgrass when we aerify. We are providing the roots of the turfgrass the ability to grow, have increases oxygen, soil pore space and ready to make their own "marathon run" through the summer months.  The longer the roots the better the plants can handle the stresses that we will put them through with low mowing heights, hot temperatures, increased foot traffic, and ball marks.

  Seeing roots such as this in the picture puts a smile on our face. This is the fruits of our labor that no one else but us has the opportunity to see on a regular basis. These roots are the foundation to our product. Without them, we do not have a great putting surface.