Green aerification questions

[Jerry Kluger]

I am in North Carolina and my club has bent grass greens and I have a couple of questions:  How often should there be deep core aeration with sand topdressing?  Also, I was at another club that had aerated their greens and the greens were much faster than those at my club and I wanted to know if anyone could explain how you can keep up speeds on topdressed greens?

[Chris Cupit]

Jerry,

I am NOT a superintendent so I am answering from the perpective of a course operator and member.

The first answer is "it depends".  I would defer to your superintendent as he will truly know the specific conditions unique to your course--amount of rounds, specific micro climate, rainfall, green construction type......

Having said that at a high traffic course three core aerations are not uncommon and even with low to moderate traffic, given your location and bentgrass, I can't imagine anything less than a hollow core spring and fall aeration.

Additionally, if there is severe summer heat stress solid core venting or "needle tining" is also extremely valuable.  You have to open the greens up and let them breathe for sure!

Also, topdressing is the single best practice one can encourage for smoother, faster greens.  We try and "dust" our greens every week on our closed day.  A light but constant application will absolutely "level out" the greens making them smoother and faster.  Of course the heavy application of sand right after an aeration will slow things down but I assume you were not talking about that.

I will say that years ago our method of aerating and topressing meant we went out, pulled cores, swept them off and buried them in sand and we tried to do this all in one day.  Now we start in the afternoon of a Monday (we are closed Tuesdays) to begin and re-open the course Wednesday at noon.  This extra time allows us to really roll the greens and clean up the mess a lot more than just watering it in.

The green are certainly messed up but actually quite playable after the rolling.  Within a day or two we will triplex the greens and after 5 days we are back to walk mowing.  This saves contless reels and bed knives which would get destroyed if we mowed right after top dressing.  Because of that many places won't even mow after a heavy toprdressing for days.  Maybe the coursyou played had just started back mowing (though the aeration holes and sand were still quite visible)?  Obviously the first cutting after the top dressing results in a pretty distinct ball speed difference even it was just a few days since mowing.  Just a theory

[JSlonis]

Jerry,

Here in NJ, we usually have two core aerations per year on the greens in both the Spring and Fall.  If greens are cut at their normal height, you can sometimes see faster speeds if they have had a light topdressing.  Think about it this way...the sand topdressing basically shortens the actual height of cut because it fills in toward the base of the plant, so less of the leaf surface is now in contact with the ball.

[Thomas Dai]

I notice is Chris' interesting post a comment about a 'closed day'.

Is this common practice at many clubs?

My club in the UK tried a 'closed morning' once per month for a while several years ago but pressure from the members soon put a stop to it.

All the best.

[JSlonis]

I notice is Chris' interesting post a comment about a 'closed day'.

Is this common practice at many clubs?

My club in the UK tried a 'closed morning' once per month for a while several years ago but pressure from the members soon put a stop to it.

All the best.

Thomas,

Unless it falls on a holiday, it is pretty common practice for most private clubs here in the Northeast (USA) to be closed on Monday's during the golf season.

[Bill Brightly]

I notice is Chris' interesting post a comment about a 'closed day'.

Is this common practice at many clubs?

My club in the UK tried a 'closed morning' once per month for a while several years ago but pressure from the members soon put a stop to it.

All the best.

We close our course for three full days in August to do large hole aerification and we do greens, tees and fairways. The calendar notes that it may be closed Thursday and Friday, as well. (Thursday and or Friday is only needed if the conditions are very wet and it takes longer.) We used to just close it Monday, and then have the crew work around golfers for as long as it took to finish the work. But then we dicided that the work would get done so much faster if the course is closed, and that means the entire course bounces back at the same time, and so much faster.

We are also one of the rare clubs that allow their super to do this in August; most make him wait until the fall...

[Anthony_Nysse]

We close for 10 days in June and 10 in August. We have found that we rip up the greens to the extent that they are not healed or 2-2.5 weeks, so it's not worth being open. The first year I was here, we vertidrained, aerified, gradened and sanded...and opened in 4 days. Members cam to the putting green, took a look and went back inside, taking their clubs with them.

[Adam Clayman]

Ahhhh! What a bunch of pantie wastes (or is it waists?) golfers have become.

Adapting to the challenge of slower and bumpier is fun.

[Ken Moum]

Ahhhh! What a bunch of pantie wastes (or is it waists?) golfers have become.

Adapting to the challenge of slower and bumpier is fun.

   
The usual meaning of the word pantywaist is 'an effeminate or weak man or boy; sissy'. Example: "I think my career has shown I'm not exactly a pantywaist" (John Wayne, in a 1971 Playboy interview).

The original sense, though, referred to an article of clothing for children. This pantywaist was an undergarment consisting of short pants and a shirt that buttoned together at the waist. By metonymy, this children's garment was applied disparagingly to an older male who would never normally wear one.