Aerification update

Since the last post we have made great strides in the greens aerification process. We were able to get them and collars topdressed. They have grown through this and are playing well at this point. We are in the middle of tee aerification with 8,9,1, and 2 completed last week and recovering nicely. Yesterday the boys aerified the rest and today they will topdress those. By the weekend we should be looking good and we can move on to the rest of the approaches. We were able to complete 1,2,3 but the rest have yet to be aerified or topdressed.
One of the drawbacks to not being able to topdress greens right after aerifying is we were unable to get sand into the holes because they had closed up on the surface. This is great for playability but not what we are looking for to create the deep sand channels seen in the picture below:

left side of the picture the light spot is the bottom of a deep tine hole filled with sand

These channels aid in water and air movement throughout the soil profile. The holes will stay open without sand even though the top has closed up or appeared to close up. The grass grows over the hole and the green surface becomes smooth but when we change cups we can see parts of the holes are still open. They last longer with sand in them however as the picture clearly shows.

close up of some tearing when the grass gets "puffy"

outside edge of 6 green showing tearing

The other main benefit to topdressing is to smooth the surface and control thatch. The greens will become puffy or leggy where the surface has a lot of leaf tissue and when in this condition they are soft and the mowers will scalp or tear the blades instead of cutting them clean. The sand will firm the surface and eliminate this issue. It will also help breakdown thatch which is the layer of dead sticks, roots and organic matter.

Large mushroom at the base of a tree on number 2