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Aerated Greens


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Least Invasive Method
I am not sure if invasive is the proper word to use.
My local course has just aerated the greens by punching finger size holes and pulling the plugs about every 3 inches or so and then top dressed with sand.
The sand was spread unevenly with some rows in the sand.
Some of the finger sized holes are filled with sand and some are not.
I have hit some practice shots on the greens in this condition.
Scoring shots from around the green make unpredictable bounces often changing direction of the shot or distance or both.
Putts are effected even more.
Only 50% of 2 foot putts will find their way to the bottom of the cup and only 25% of 3 foot putts.
I consider the greens unplayable.
The fairways will putt smoother and more predictable than the greens.
I am not a great putter, but I am a good putter.
I average about 31 putts per round.
If you play with a 2 putt rule with the greens in this condition I give up an average of 5 strokes per round from my average.
I also have a fairly good short game around the greens.
I often chip or pitch to within 2 or 3 feet of the hole.
I have a difficult time ending up within 6 to 8 feet with those same shots with the greens in aerated condition.
I play in a Wednesday night league.
It might help some of the poor putters in the league.
It usually takes at least a month for the greens to even be considered playable and 2 or 3 months for all the fingers size holes to heal completely.
They are not reducing our league green fees during this aeration healing period which I think is unfair.
It is sort of like paying for a Digital HD TV signal and you get black and white analog for a couple months or like paying for a $30 lobster tail once a week and they bring you a couple steamed shrimp 8 weeks in a row.
I know this type of aeration has been common practice since I started playing golf in the late 60's.
I don't know every detail of the science behind this aeration method, but I know they do it to keep the soil from getting too compacted which helps the roots of the grass and absorption of water and possibly helps with the ball or shot holding ability of the greens.
I hoped that by 2010 they would have come up with a better method to accomplish the same thing.
It seams like they could use tiny water jets that make little toothpick diameter holes or something.
Is their another method of maintaining the greens that will produce the same goal as punching a bunch of finger size holes and spreading sand on the greens?
If there is, I know the machine would be expensive, but since it only takes one day per year to aerate all 18 greens plus the putting green, couldn't a golf course just lease the high tech machine for the day or pay a company that owns the machine to come in for one day and do the job?
I am just pissed that my favorite golf courses have to have bad greens for 2 or 3 months per year just to have good greens for 2 or 3 months per year.
The rest of the time the greens are just mediocre in my opinion.
I think I would look at it differently if the greens were great for 9 months per year and healing from aeration for the other 3 months.
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It might take 3 months for total recovery and 2 months before the greens play acceptable.
I wish they could aerate 1/2 of each green and let them recover then aerate the other 1/2 of each green so the course was still playable.
This method would not interfere with putts inside 15 feet or so.
It would also not interfere with short scoring shots that are around the correct half of the green.

The course could just have a note posted stating:
In an effort to maintain excellent playing conditions, the back half of each green has been aerated.
It is your choice if you would like to take a mandatory 2 putt score from the aerated section of the greens or play your ball as it lies.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Enjoy your round.

I want my good putts and chips to go in the hole or end up near the hole.
I don't want my well struck putts and short shots to change direction 3 or 4 times and end up 4 or 5 feet from the hole then wonder if they would have went in if the greens weren't aerated on every hole.
My half green idea would also work out for the 2 putt rule.
If you are on the aerated half of the green you would have the choice of picking your ball up and scoring it a 2 putt or putting your ball out and counting each putt.
Most of the time a golfer is going to 2 or 3 put from the far half of a green any way.
Half green aeration would allow golfers to have a chance of sinking putts that are in their makable range without the interference of aeration marks.
What do you guys think about my half green at a time aeration idea?

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Are you a member at a club or even of a men's club?

The best supers I know do their major seasonal aerification twice a year, but top dress, verticut, and run small tines very often.

You could ask your super to look into the half and half approach... just punch half the green at a time. I like it because you can still get rewarded for hitting a great shot into a green, but it does kinda stretch out the process.

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[quote name='Jameson465' date='25 May 2010 - 05:50 PM' timestamp='1274827848' post='2467037']
if you can talk the super into placing enough sand on the green they will heal faster....... and putt better
[/quote]


[quote name='rblmp32' date='25 May 2010 - 06:28 PM' timestamp='1274830087' post='2467096']
3 months is a looooong time. Lack of water?
[/quote]


[quote name='Jameson465' date='26 May 2010 - 07:09 AM' timestamp='1274875775' post='2468058']
This is the most important part of maintanice to a golf course. if done correctly the healing process wont take 10-14 days and they will be playable in a few days


[/quote]



+1, The aeration holes will heal faster if they are sanded with enough sand (even if they have to top dress twice to fill all the holes) and then watered properly. I think that 2 weeks of 'bad greens' is appropriate and should be just about the max amt of time for them to get back to a normal smooth roll. The speed should come back shortly after that.

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Dealing with this now at my course as well. Greens were in the best shape I've seen them, even with the extra-cold winter this year. Wish they didn't have to do this. I did read something about not using hollow punches, but solid, very thin tines of some sort. I assume this is done by only the highest grade courses though (I think it was a tour level course that I was reading about)

They punched them a week ago today at my local course. Just went to roll a few and to get it even close, I was having to hit it hard enough to roll it to the other side of the green. Looks like I'll be getting in a lot of range time and not much playing time until they heal

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[quote name='5under' date='25 May 2010 - 04:26 PM' timestamp='1274826417' post='2466995'] Is their another method of maintaining the greens that will produce the same goal as punching a bunch of finger size holes and spreading sand on the greens? If there is, I know the machine would be expensive, but since it only takes one day per year to aerate all 18 greens plus the putting green, couldn't a golf course just lease the high tech machine for the day or pay a company that owns the machine to come in for one day and do the job? I am just pissed that my favorite golf courses have to have bad greens for 2 or 3 months per year just to have good greens for 2 or 3 months per year. The rest of the time the greens are just mediocre in my opinion. I think I would look at it differently if the greens were great for 9 months per year and healing from aeration for the other 3 months. [/quote]

There are other methods...different types of punching equipment, even state-of-the-art equipment. Choices are often influenced by sub-conditions, turf as well as drainage, sprinkler systems, weather conditions, actual course location and superintendents budget. Additionally, some methods are only viable with certain types of grass which requires SOTA green/turf equipment, and that equipment can be very costly, not to mention how much the actual grass costs. Changing turf isn't always an easy option either. I was on the greens committee at my last equity club. Additionally when it comes to greens, changing or improving one aspect often dictates changes other aspects, making a simple change into a huge budgetary consideration. That combined with the level of play and greens fee's might influence what methods are chosen. In other words, the needed changes and associated costs for recovery to improve could easily get passed on through green's fee. Maybe management doesn't want to do that because it would have a derogatorily affect on play. Food for thought. :)

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I've seen courses advertise that they hydrojet their greens instead of aeration. Supposed to work great and they heal almost instantly. Never played on them though. My course just did its greens, after 3 weeks they are almost healed. Warmer weather would have helped. They need to put enough sand on the green to fill every hole as the open holes won't heal for months. One year our course pulled plugs and didn't sand at all, the greens sucked for the whole year, until they redid them with sand.

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[quote name='SC Golfer' date='26 May 2010 - 07:24 PM' timestamp='1274923442' post='2469559']
We have been hydrojetting our greens for 3 years now. Its only about 1 to 1.5 weeks of bumps and then they are ready to go again. Much better than the old 1/2 holes punched in the greens.
[/quote]

I hope it catches on. Any idea on costs vs. punching holes?

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  • 11 years later...
On 5/26/2010 at 4:09 AM, Jameson465 said:

This is the most important part of maintanice to a golf course. if done correctly the healing process wont take 10-14 days and they will be playable in a few days
 

An old thread, but timely for this time of the year in the Northeast.

 

This has got to be one of the biggest lies at most golf courses.  I have belonged to private clubs and public courses for the better part of 40 years.  Here in the Northeast, in my experience, there is at least a three week heal period before the greens are playable and 4 to 5 weeks to become smooth.  Typically done in May and August, the process makes the course unplayable for 3 weeks in May and 3 weeks in August/September.  I understand the need but essentially, in a regIon with a 6 month golf season, the course is unplayable for 6 - 8 weeks every year.  That’s why I also belong to a public course that only aerifies once a year - more opportunities to play.

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  • 1 month later...

3 months of aeration seems excessive. My clubs only aerated twice a year which is about 4 weeks of impact in my year round golf.

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On 8/8/2021 at 8:28 AM, hunterdog said:

An old thread, but timely for this time of the year in the Northeast.

 

This has got to be one of the biggest lies at most golf courses.  I have belonged to private clubs and public courses for the better part of 40 years.  Here in the Northeast, in my experience, there is at least a three week heal period before the greens are playable and 4 to 5 weeks to become smooth.  Typically done in May and August, the process makes the course unplayable for 3 weeks in May and 3 weeks in August/September.  I understand the need but essentially, in a regIon with a 6 month golf season, the course is unplayable for 6 - 8 weeks every year.  That’s why I also belong to a public course that only aerifies once a year - more opportunities to play.


Do you have a turf degree or work on a crew?

 

To say it’s a lie, well, you are spewing nonsense to be honest. 

 

It all depends on time and available resources. You can get the course very playable inside 14 days depending on what and how you do it. 

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On 9/19/2021 at 7:02 PM, mallrat said:


Do you have a turf degree or work on a crew?

 

To say it’s a lie, well, you are spewing nonsense to be honest. 

 

It all depends on time and available resources. You can get the course very playable inside 14 days depending on what and how you do it. 

I don’t have a turf degree but, in my youth, worked on golf courses and been the greens committee chairperson at clubs.  Further, what I can tell you is that my club aerated the second week of August.  Greens were smooth again in middle of September. I do note that at a local county owned course, the greens were smooth after a couple of weeks. 

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13 hours ago, hunterdog said:

I don’t have a turf degree but, in my youth, worked on golf courses and been the greens committee chairperson at clubs.  Further, what I can tell you is that my club aerated the second week of August.  Greens were smooth again in middle of September. I do note that at a local county owned course, the greens were smooth after a couple of weeks. 


So if you have been the chairman of the greens committee why don’t you fight to get him more resources? Ask him/her what he/she thinks they would need for them to heal faster

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15 hours ago, Abh159 said:

FWIW my club aerates twice a year with bent greens. Spring (mid-April typically) and Fall (mid-September typically). 

 

The greens are playable within 2 weeks or about 14 days, and they are completely back to normal somewhere in the 3-4 week range.

With bent, if you topdress enough and apply the right chems you will be playable the next day and fully healed in 10 days. Anything else is an excuse (during the growing season).

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Ours take about 4 weeks to be perfectly fine. 2 weeks for the holes to stop effecting putts and another 2 weeks to work out the ruts. 
 

We use core harvesters which rut up the greens. We have staffing issues (can’t find crew) so we have to use these and they create ruts, it is what it is. Also we top dress really heavy the first 2 days and then back off the rest of that week because the grass gets really bruised from dragging in the sand and we can’t afford a brush. 
 

We are 100% Poa, fwiw.

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