"The greens were perfect. Why did they have to tear them up? Now the greens are ruined"
Core aerification is the most disruptive maintenance activity a golfer faces. The golf industry has struggled for several decades, trying to find the best ways to minimize the impact to golfers. I recently 'attended' a live web-based meeting to discuss aerification. The meeting moderator began the session by stating the golf industry is being hurt by the misconception that aerification is a practice which leads to poor putting conditions and aerification isn't really that bad. He went on to say complaints were unfair to the hard working maintenance crews who performed the difficult work.
What? With all due respect to the moderator, our maintenance crew is supposed to work hard and aerification does ruin the putting surface, often for a several days.
Serious golfers know the importance of aerification. It is a necessary short term disruption that has benefits that lead to long term improvements in playing conditions. It is our job to complete the process as efficiently as possible and take measures to quickly restore the putting surface so that normal playing conditions can resume.
What is aerification? Aerification is any practice that pokes a hole through the turf canopy creating channels so water and air can move more freely to the root zone. There are several types of aerification. Some aerification methods are barely noticeable and most golfers don't even realize any aerifying occurred.
Solid tine aerifiction, using 1/8" diameter solid tines to make very small holes in the surface, is performed once or twice per month at the Village Links.
The resulting holes are barely visible and do not impact ball roll.
Some greens have micro-climates including too much shade from large trees or water soaked root zones due to low lying compacted areas. These sites require more aggressive spiking using 1/4" solid tines to allow more air to reach the turfgrass roots. During this process, we only spike the portions of the greens that require it to keep them healthy.
The 1/4" solid tines are noticeable to players but putting is not impacted.
The aerification process that is dreaded by everyone is core aerifying greens. Cores spaced in a 2" X 2" pattern are removed using hollow tines up to 5/8" diameter.
Turf on a golf green is highly maintained to provide a firm and smooth putting surface. The use of fertilizers and micro nutrients are necessary to help the turf recover from foot traffic wear and low mowing heights. The intense maintenance results in the development of thatch just below the surface. Thatch is an organic layer made up of dead and dying roots and grass plant parts. Thatch accumulation is a normal process in any turfgrass stand. A moderate amount of thatch is needed to hold the turf together but when too much thatch develops water is unable to penetrate the surface and roots will not get the nutrients, moisture and air they need to survive. Researchers have determined that when the organic matter in the the top 2" of the root zone contains more than 3.5% organic matter by weight, the turf conditions begin to decline to an unhealthy condition. If organic matter isn't reduced, the turf health will decline, reducing playing conditions.
There are two ways to control the percentage of organic matter in the root zone. Mechanical removal of thatch through core aerification is the most efficient way. After the physical removal of the cores is complete, the resulting pattern of holes are filled with sand.
A layer of sand is spread on the green surface and brushed into the aerification holes.
This profile of a golf green root zone shows the light colored sand which replaced an aerification core.
Sand filled aerification holes will slowly recover each day over a 2 to 3 week period if all goes well and putting will return to normal. This process may need to be repeated up to 3 times per season to keep organic content at proper levels. To reduce the need for core aerification, we make sure we don't over fertilize the turf and topdress the greens with sand lightly every 10 to 14 days. Light topdressing does not remove any thatch but helps dilute the organic matter content over time.
A very light layer of sand is applied to the greens 2 to 3 times per month. Vibratory rollers are used to push the sand into the turf canopy helping to dilute the organic matter build up in the root zone.
