The Obvious Benefits Of Core Aeration...

The pictures above shows two different portions of greens that we core aerated back in July.  These areas are historically high-traffic areas that receive excess wear and traffic from foot traffic, a wetter than usual area or a pinch point where golfers tend to funnel because of the topography in these areas. These areas are both, as mentioned, "Wet Areas" that tend to stay wetter than the rest of of the green. The extremely wet June we experienced further exacerbated the problem here so we took the approach to core aerate these spots and the benefits are evident with the healthy looking turf in all of the aeration holes.

With the demands to keep greens speed at a certain expected level, these areas that are weaker will be expected to thin out come August.   I have heard members ask "Why are the greens slow today" or "Why can't the greens be this fast all of the time".... The answer is in the pictures above.  We would have extensive thin areas like the ones pictured above if we did't take our foot off the pedal at least a little bit.  These areas will fill in nicely going forward thanks to the aeration process.  We will be core aerating all the greens on September 8th;  the process is very labor intensive but the benefits to our greens is exponential and is the reason our greens play the way they do all summer!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Wetting Agent Products For Turf...Worth The Investment!

The above picture shows how dry the intermediate rough has gotten recently with the dry weather we have been experiencing.  It is very noticeable how healthy the fairways look compared to some of the rough.  In the picture above, you can see a distinct line where we sprayed wetting agent on the fairways this spring to help keep the fairways moisture level adequate.  The lackluster irrigation system is the main reason we spray the wetting agent in the spring.  Next year we will include the intermediate cut in the wetting agent application for very obvious reasons!!!

Mike O'Neill, GCS