Pencil-tine Aerification

We  performed the first of four “pencil-tine” aerifications this Tuesday. Aerification achieves three things. It relieves soil compaction, it provides a method to improve the soil mixture around the highest part of a green’s roots and it reduces or prevents the accumulation of excess thatch. A pencil tine aerification is much different from the aerifications we do over the summer. A pencil aerification is simply more of a maintenance aerification, that punches very small holes to allow more air and water to penetrate the soil. The aerification is followed immediately by our rollers. Once the green is rolled, it is hard to see that anything was done. The disruption to the playability of the golf course is kept to an absolute minimum. The only disruption is that the Golf Shop must run straight tee times for us to accomplish this. This process will be done on the second Tuesday of each month through April.

deep-tine greens aerification

Today we performed our last summer aerification on our greens. We contracted an aerification company to deep-tine the greens. Using half-inch solid tines, the machine drives deep into the soil (about 7 inches) and opens up the putting surface to allow better movement of air and water. As invasive as this seems, it was almost unnoticeable two days later.

Greens Aerification

Today we aerified our greens for the third time this summer. This time we used small tines spaced fairly close together. the plugs are then removed and the greens are topdressed liberally followed by a drag brush. The greens tend to recover quicker from this type of aerification since the holes are much smaller.

Fairway Aerification Underway

Today, we began the second of three aerifications on the fairways. Much Like the verticutting, this is a necessary practice which will improve the overall health of the turf. We generally only do two of these a season, but I have decided to do a third one in late September.