Aerification: Who, What, and Why?
Matt Madsen – Diamond Ridge & The Woodlands Superintendent
September, 2024
Occasionally the question comes up, why do we aerify greens when they are looking their best? The BCRA Turf Management teams perform greens aerification with the goal of maintaining healthy putting greens throughout the year, striving to provide the best possible playing conditions for our customers. Here, we’ll briefly describe our process for aerification, and why we perform this important task 2-3 times per year.
Who: Our Turfgrass Management teams at all five golf courses consist of Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents, Equipment Techs, Irrigation and Spray Techs along with Equipment Operators and Groundskeepers. We sometimes share equipment and staff between BCRA courses during the aerification process. Also, we occasionally use contractors to perform aerification that requires specialized equipment.
What: The aerification process really involves two parts, creating a hole in the green, and filling that hole with sand. We aerify greens with aerators that, depending on the conditions, are outfitted with tines that make large holes, small holes and pull a core or simply poke a hole. Any cores are then removed from the greens. Dry sand is applied and brushes with counter-rotating bristles are used to work the dry sand into the holes. Any excess sand is then blown off, greens are rolled, soil amendments are applied and watered in, leaving behind a firm, smooth surface that requires some time to heal.
During a typical greens aerification, we pull approximately 4.5 million cores from 18 greens and use between 60 and 90 tons of sand to fill holes.
Why: So why perform this arduous and labor-intensive process? There are many benefits to a sound aerification process, here are the top 3:
Greens aeration is rarely a popular practice; however, it is an essential part of our program and a key contributor to the overall health and quality of our playing conditions.
