Green Aeration Issue?

[B_R_A_D_Y]

All you need to start a heated debate at this club I play, is to bring up the aeration technique they use. SOME Members have been complaining for 4 years or more … the top dressing is not consistent or sufficient to actually fill all the aeration holes. 
 

When aeration is done in the spring, you can see all the aeration dimples for several months. They don’t knock the ball off line, but it does mean they are not as fast as they could be. Some members guess they roll at an 8. 

These pics are from the approx centers of the greens. I must add, that this technique renders soft greens that hold really well, tho some claim the ball doesn’t have an opportunity to release properly. 
 

What do yall think? These pics are of greens done 5 days ago  

Edited September 21 by B_R_A_D_Y
Added timeline data

[Tom the Golf Nut]

I’m not trying to stir the pot but your greens keeper/ grounds crew are not doing a good job with the greens. As an example this first photo was taken the same day as aeration (a Friday).

This is two days later (Sunday)

This is a couple days after that.

There are three types of aeration. Large tine, small tine, and dryject.  The large and small tine require manual sand spread to fill the holes and the dryject punches the hole and fills it with sand simultaneously. This leaves the sand filled hole flush then the crew blows off the green. Later that day you water. A day or so later you fertilize and water.

Our greens are checked twice a day with moisture meters. They monitor the soil to see when they need water. Too much is bad as well as too little.

Your greens shouldn’t look like that a week later. 

 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

The above Dryject was done two weeks ago. Today they are doing the small tine aeration which will be followed by fall seeding. 
You can see there is no evidence of the Dryject from two weeks ago. The small tine cuts will be gone in a day or so after a mow and roll.

 

PS: That is actually my son. They seeded today. He told me when he got home. January he starts greens keeper school up in Pinehurst. It's a one year course that our club is sending him to. When he graduates he gets a good pay raise and will be the assistant greens keeper. Its nice they recognize his abilities and are willing to invest in him.

Edited September 24 by Tom the Golf Nut
Added content

[Golf2Much]

My home course is a classic Rees Jones design, in other words, small greens.  Coupled with a good deal of play in season (November to June) and a fungus issue and we have a history of four or five aerations (once a month) in the summertime.   

At the start of this summer, I thought for sure that we were going to lose four or five greens.   But we aerated with big holes with sand top dressing (May 14th or so)  and ten weeks later did the dryject process for the first time.  I have to say, not only did the dryject greens recover within a day or two, but the process seemed to heal the portions of the greens that were marginal at best.  On 9/3 we just finished a second round of the big hole/top dressing and they seemed to recover two or three weeks ahead of the first big hole aeration attempt.  Next week (October 3) we'll have our last aeration of the season.  The superintendent has decided to bring back the dryject for the last round.

The greens were redone with salt resistant grass after a hurricane flooded the course.  Right now, the greens are 17 years old and the owner wants them in place for another 8 years.  With good aeration techniques and patient members, they might get the 25 years out of them.

[B_R_A_D_Y]

Ur not stirring the pot … this is what we members have been saying for years, yet the greenskeepers say they don’t have the budget … how much can sand cost? The members volunteer to spread sand as we don’t have a machine that injects the holes as it goes. 
 

Thx for responding. My goal was to get feedback from others to see if there was validity in our opinion … other members also wonder if there is not enough serious golfers on the board who understand that it’s a golf club first and a social club second. Just venting  

Edited September 24 by B_R_A_D_Y
Clarify

[edingc]

On 9/21/2024 at 4:03 PM, B_R_A_D_Y said:

All you need to start a heated debate at this club I play, is to bring up the aeration technique they use. SOME Members have been complaining for 4 years or more … the top dressing is not consistent or sufficient to actually fill all the aeration holes. 
 

When aeration is done in the spring, you can see all the aeration dimples for several months. They don’t knock the ball off line, but it does mean they are not as fast as they could be. Some members guess they roll at an 8. 

These pics are from the approx centers of the greens. I must add, that this technique renders soft greens that hold really well, tho some claim the ball doesn’t have an opportunity to release properly. 
 

What do yall think? These pics are of greens done 5 days ago  

How old is the course/greens? This sounds like my course where aeration marks from the fall can last until mid-July. But the greens are OLD -- original to the course in the 1960s. On a few of the holes with some light/tree issues, you can still see remnants of the aeration almost a year later. It's one of the reasons they've gone to aerating every other year - last year the greens we in pretty great shape right from the get go without aeration the year prior.

My practice facility, built in the 1990s with true USGA greens, aerates 2-4 times per year and they are fully healed in a couple of weeks. Completely different grass/conditions, however.

I also have noticed whatever sand my course uses is pretty course and it seems to stick around longer than the slightly finer stuff they have at the practice facility.

 

[B_R_A_D_Y]

Course was built in 1920. They sold 1/2 the course and added a new back 9 around 1940. Other than that the course is 85% unchanged. So yes, old greens. We aerate twice a year (spring & fall) and do a light surface “verticut?” Mid way thru the season. 

[Josh Parker]

We have a lot of the same issues and I'll have to find some photos on my phone to post.  Our greens are pushing 30 years old and weren't taken care of for too many years.  Our new super has done a good job of getting them in "better" shape but they really need to be redone.  The punch 5-6 times a year now but prior it may have been once.  

This past year prior to new super

Recent photos of condition of greens

Not the same hole but had same issues.

 

 

Edited September 25 by Josh Parker