It's just about that time of the year again... If you've noticed, the tee sheet on Sunday, April 29 closes at 2 pm for that twelve-letter curse word: aerification. Right now, the weather looks cooperative for Sunday and Monday, and the course will be closed as scheduled to allow for greens aerification.
Last week, we applied fertilizer to the greens to provide them with ample nutrition to cover the many millions of sand-filled holes that we are going to be creating. Now, we just need Mother Nature to warm things up to get the grass growing. Hopefully, she will cooperate and everything will heal quickly.
Yesterday, we tested out the two core aerifiers and deep driller on the chipping green, and all of the equipment worked like a charm. Thus, the greens are now 1/20 of the way done.
As we've done for a long time, we're having the UW-Madison Turf Club help us clean the greens and fill the holes on Monday. These guys provide labor that is otherwise unavailable at this time of the year, and they really do a great job. This project is also the major fundraiser for the Turf Club, so it's most definitely mutually-beneficial.
With the great condition that the greens are in, you might be wondering why we find the need to make them sandy and bumpy. However, the benefits are many (thatch removal, increased oxygen in the root zone, deeper roots, better water infiltration and percolation), and a little bit of inconvenience now is worth it in the long run. Blackhawk's old, Poa annua greens have been mostly unscathed over the past two extreme summers, and diligent core aerification is no small factor in our ability to keep them healthy. As I've said before, it's a necessary evil.
I'm going to attempt to take pictures to document the entire process and will post the results next week.
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