Mission Complete

With a little assist from Mother Nature, the fairway aerification is in the books for the year.  The mostly sunny and breezy days that we had from Sunday-Tuesday allowed the cores to dry very nicely, and the lack of dew on Monday night helped us to wrap things up yesterday evening.  Below is a photographic journey through our fairway aerification process:

First, Chris used the smaller, walking aerifier to go around the sprinkler heads, yardage plaques, and pea-gravel-filled slit trenches on the fairways.  By doing this, we're able to do a much more precise job in these areas, and the operators of the larger aerifiers don't have to worry about getting too close to these hazards.

Next, the large, tow-behind aerifiers pull cores on the remainder of the fairway.  We have three of these units.  However, two of them were occassionally pulling up turf due to small differences in the machines and less-than-optimal rooting to anchor the plants.  Because of this, the machines were closely monitored and occassionally restricted.  Ideally, all three machines would have been running, but the incovenience of running a restricted fleet is a whole lot better than having a bunch of ripped-up turf.

Once the cores have dried completely, they are chopped up with our stable of four Jacobsen Turfcats that are outfitted with flail mowers.  Despite being a bit aged, the machines held up extremely well, even in Monday's heat.  As you might be able to see, it's an extremely dusty job, and each of the operators is outfitted with a respirator mask, goggles, and ear protection.

After the cores have been chopped once, Chad uses a heavy chain drag to move some of the soil back into the holes and to separate the soil from the undesirable thatch.  The Turfcats then chop the remaining cores once more, and Chad drags them a second time.

Following the chopping and dragging, all that remains is a little bit of soil and some thatch.  Much of the soil falls into the holes as it's blown, and the thatch is sent to the rough to be raked up.  As they go, the operators also clean the soil from the irrigation heads and yardage plaques.

When the blowing ends, the water begins flying.  Not only does the water keep the turf alive after it's been tortured for two days, but it also drives some of the remaining soil into the ground.

And that's where the photo diary ends.  But, it certainly doesn't mean that that's the end of aerification.  Once the fairways have dried, they are overseeded with creeping bentgrass, drug with a lighter-duty metal mat to further break-up any soil on the turf surface, and finally, they are mown.  

Lastly, any areas of turf that were ripped up are resodded, minorly-damaged areas are filled with divot mix, and the junior tees are put back in the fairways.