Glen Echo Country Club Golf Course Management: Holey, Holey, Holey!!

Within the past 7 days, our staff have been to the beach and back a couple of times. No we were not on spring break but dealt with tons of sand. actually 71 tons of sand. Last Tuesday we posted the dryject work that was contracted out but our staff loaded the machines with 30 tons of sand.

Yesterday, we connected our tractor to our Redexim Verti-drain deeptine aerator and put about 144 1/2" wide by 8" deep holes per square foot for a grand total of about 8,736,000 holes in our greens.(Yes I counted them all) The operation last week was about the same spacing so over 17,000,000 aeration holes in our greens the past 6 days. We still have 3 greens to finish, holes 16-18 and we hope to complete those on Wednesday.

Our operation included the following:

Topdress the green with a heavy layer of sand
Aerate the green
Use our pull behind blower and backpack blowers to blow the sand in the holes
Brush the remaining sand on the green surface to smooth them out.
Roll the greens to help smoother over the holes

This operation should assist our early season green growth in the following ways:

Allow moisture to enter surface more readily and assist wetter areas in drying more quickly.
Increase oxygen into the green profile.
Improve and increase root growth to combat summer stress
Extra sand on the surface assists in smoothing the surfaces. Of course initially the surfaces are disrupted from the tugging and pulling of the aeration equipment.
Protects the crown area of the plant where roots and leaves begin their life.

It will take about a week of watering and rolling before we will mow the greens. This will allow the sand to settle and the turf to grow up through the sand canopy. The holes should be completely filled in within a couple of weeks. I anticipate the greens to back to normal around opening days for our members.

During the season, we will vent the greens with smaller tines about 3-4 times to assist in plant health. This is completed with a small 5/16" tine which goes into the surface of the green about 4-5 inches. It is usually non-disruptive to putting surfaces and the holes disappear in a couple of days but it is very important to plant health in the summer.

We will also do light and frequent topdressing which helps to smooth the surface and protect the crowns of the plants. It also improves ball roll out after a couple of days. A few videos below of the process as well as a couple of pics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfDejFQFZ9A