It's that time of year again!

Matt on aerifier

Aerification of the golf course began about two weeks ago. Aerification is a vital part to keeping your golf course healthy and playable. Our primary goals for aerification is to relieve compaction, remove unwanted thatch, and create an easier pathway for air, water, and nutrients to get from the surface down to the roots.

GreensOur greens aerification program takes two days and requires 7 employees to complete. We begin by aerifying the green with 5/8" tines pulling a 4" long core every 2" on center. This gives us a total of almost 5,000,000 holes poked just in the greens.
We have a specialized piece of equipment called a core harvester that picks up the cores from the greens surface and puts them into the bed of a utility vehicle.
After the cores have been cleaned up we begin top dressing the green with sand. Our goal is to put down the perfect amount of sand, where all the holes are full and there is no extra sand on the playing surface.
After the sand has dried completely, we begin to drag the sand into the holes using a specialized drag mat called a coco mat. This mat is made up of millions of strong bristles that brush the sand down into the holes.
The greens will typically be 100% healed within 10 to 14 days.

topdressed green

Tees
The tee and approach aerification process is exactly the same as greens, except we use a solid tine that does not pull a core. Due to the differing types of grass from our greens to our tees, we can use different cultural practices, but still receive the same benefit.

Areway marks in fairway

Fairways and rough
Our fairways and rough are aerified with an Aerway. The Aerway will slice a hole in the turf 6" deep and 1/2" wide. This machine is very quick and we can usually aerify all 18 fairways in 3 days.

Aerification by the numbers
105 tons of sand for tees, greens (that's 210,000 pounds)
32 5/8" tines
32 3/4" tines
24 slicing tines
7 employees