Fairway Aerification

It is now one of my favorite maintenance times of the year. We are mid way through our fairway aerification process. The pictures I have taken are from holes #1, #3, and #18. Aerifying fairways is a very similar process to aerifying our tees. The height of cut is very similar so the requirements are also similar. In this process, we first have three of our employees take the Toro Pro Core aerifiers and begin punching holes in the ground avoiding irrigation heads that have been flagged off. Our aerifiers are set at .750. This has been great at slowly helping us with our thatch issues among other things. Once the entire fairway has been aerified, another employee will take the metal drag mat and run it over the plugs numerous times to break apart the thatch and sand. Most of the sand will work its way into the existing holes leaving the thatch and core remains to be picked up by the John Deere sweeper. The sweeper does a great job in picking up a majority of the plugs. For the plugs that do not get collected in the sweeper, we have a fifth employee on the large turbine blower moving the remaining plugs into the center of the fairway for pickup. This clean process leaves the holes open for sand, amendments, and overseeding. When the aerification holes are open, we take a Toro Workman and pull our large Lely hopper behind it spreading Perennial Ryegrass seed and Gypsum onto the fairway at a rate of 150 lbs/acre for the seed and 13 lbs/M for the Gypsum. This helps establish the health and Ph of the fairways with new germination and plant growth to close the existing holes as soon as possible. Once the seed and Gypsum are applied, another employee takes the large New Holland Tractor with the Dakota Turf Tender and spreads fairway sand. This fills the holes and covers the seed and Gypsum. A drag mat is then pulled over the sand to work it into the holes and water is applied shortly after. Since I have been at The Preserve I have noticed a difference in the quality of the fairways due to aerification and have become a huge fan of the process.