Hydrojecting Greens

At least once each summer, we contract with Tom Edgerton of E&E Enterprises to Hydroject our greens.  The hydroject is an aerator that uses a very highly pressurize bead of water to make a hole in the turf allowing for water and oxygen to exchange more freely in the green profile.  This is a very non disruptive process to the  putting surface and within a few days, you will not notice any holes in the surface of the greens.  The bead of water can penetrate up to about 5" in depth and will give our greens a few weeks of relief from the heat.  The hole pattern is about 2-3" spacing between holes.  We had planned this process after the Invitational because of the usual stresses from a 3 day tournament of 120 people as well as the potential for some of the warmest and most humid weather of the year.  Healthy root systems do not like highly saturated soils because they hold less oxygen and become very hot because of water's ability to conduct or hold onto heat.  All of the greens were completed by 10:30 except for 17 which was finished by 11:00 a.m.  Tom and his two sons each operated an aerator to help reduce the inconvenience to our members since the operation was performed on a open play day..

Stacey Edgerton, Tom's youngest son  walking across the practice green with his aerator.

The back of the machine and the hole pattern left by the aerator.