Spring Aerification

Our spring aerification went well again this year.  We aerified on March 11 & 12 and everything has healed in nicely.  Now we are getting the greens back to the perfect conditions everyone enjoys and the weather has finally started to cooperate with us.  Here are few photos from aerification day.

Deep drill crew- this machine drills down to about 12" creating very deep channels for air, water, and nutrients to move freely down through the green.

In the video you can actually see the front tire lift off of the ground a little bit.  This is where it is hitting a compacted layer.  

The black "box" dragging behind the aerifier collects all of the cores that have been pulled up and drags them to the edge of the green.  Prior to these attachments the entire crew would push these off by hand delaying their ability to perform other tasks (thus delaying getting the greens back playable for golf)

A cutworm crawls across the green in front of the deep drill machine

 Deep drill crew on #4 green

After the machines leave the green the piles are scooped up by hand to be hauled away

Backpack blowers used to further clean the surface and open up holes

After blowing the excess sand behind the aerifier machine and the deep drill machine we have as many holes as possible open; this allows for fertilizers to fall into the holes more easily