Additional aerating of #11 Green

The 11th green has always been a green that is very slow to drain.  It is probably one of the flattest greens on the golf course.  Most greens during heavier rains will drain water off of the surface of the green to the sides or the direction that the green slopes which is usually back to front.  Greens that are flat have a tendency to drain more water through the profile.  Also, our greens with no sub-surface drainage must rely upon the water to penetrate either through the soil profile under the green or move between the sand/soil  layer to the lower area of the green where water accumulates until it can slowly drain from the green.  The back left section of the green also has a low spot which puddles during relatively moderate rainfall.  As you remember from last year, we placed a swale and catch basin to re-direct the water underground that was coming over the back left corner of the green from the area of the 4th tee and the cemetery.     

We've noticed over the last couple of weeks that the green seems to be holding more moisture than normal.  It might not be any worse than normal but the mowers have been scalping slightly and we've also seen some algae forming on the green surface.  In an effort to speed up the water penetration into the green profile, we used our deep tined aerifier with a 3/8" solid tine to poke some holes in this section of the green.  The actual hole size is smaller than a pencil eraser.  We usually do not place hole locations back in this section of green but if you should end up in this area, there should be no disruption to your game.  This is also the walk on and walk off area for the green which creates some additional compaction issues.  We intend to leave the holes open to allow for better water penetration and preferring not to deal with excessive sand issue on a green.  The situation might not be any worse than years past but we felt we should do something to help this area dry out a little more quickly over the next couple of weeks to improve the overall health of this section of the green. 

You can see how relatively small the holes are that were placed in the green.

The green was aerated from the left of the 04 on the date stamp of the picture at a 45 degree angle through the flag stick.  I also laid a golf club out in the middle of the green which marks the line as well.