Aeration
It is April and
spring is finally here. The flowers are beginning to bloom, temperatures are
rising and the course is getting back into peak form. Now why on earth would
the Grounds Team decide to go and destroy the course for us? Again! Yes, every
golfer out there would know that I am referring to Spring Aeration. That time
of year, when the course is just beginning to dry out and firm up. Then, the Grounds
Team decides to poke holes and cover the greens with sand.
There are many
reasons why the Grounds Team pushes to have the course aerated at least twice a
year, to go along with additional cultivating practices throughout the season.
Almost all of these reasons have to do with the perception of how golf courses should
play; with most of the focus being on the high demand and playability of greens
each and every day. The performance of greens is often judged by how they
perform on the surface and so they should be. All golfers want greens that are
smooth, fast paced, receptive and most importantly - consistent from hole #1
through #18. It is often the performance underneath the surface that allows us
to push the li
mits for golfers. The 3 main reasons why we
aerate multiple times throughout the year are to relieve compaction, increase
rooting structure and remove thatch from the upper soil profile.
As the days and
weeks go by, compaction is an inevitable occurrence on greens. It is caused by our daily maintenance practices which includes mowing and rolling along with additional equipment that travel over greens each day. However, the major cause
of compaction is from the traffic accumulated by the sheer number of golfers
walking on the greens. The typical foursome takes over 300 footsteps per
green, with an average of 50 foursomes per day, this equates to 15,000 steps each day!
When we aerate greens, we relieve compaction by increasing soil porosity; which
is the flow of air throughout the soil. From a turf management stand point,
increasing airflow increases void space between soil particles which in turn
increases the rate of infiltration or drainage. Increasing air flow also
creates an overall better growing environment for turf which reduces the need
for fungicide applications as disease pressure is reduced.
So what does
adding additional air flow to the greens mean for golfers? Relieving compaction
might not seem necessary at this time of year, but lets take a moment and think
of this scenario. It is the middle of July and you are 100 yards from the green
on the very first hole. The pin is at the front and you land your wedge on the
green and in front of the pin. Your excitement has quickly turned to
frustration as you watch your ball take one massive hop followed by a few more
and your ball rests at the back of the green. What once looked like a birdie
putt from within 15 ft has turned in to a 90 ft cross country putt down hill.
Good luck making birdie let along trying to avoid a 3-putt on the very first
hole.
A healthy root structure
is arguable the most important factor to allow the Grounds Team to push the
limits every day. Without a well structured root system, we are unable to push
the playability of our greens by double cutting from time to time or rolling 5-7
days per week. These maintenance practices cause additional stress to the turf
and without healthy roots we are increasing the chance of disease and even loss
of turf altogether. When we aerate turf the additional air flow in the soil allows the roots to easily grow into the
air spaces provided. Lastly, when we aerate turf, we will sever the roots
directly underneath. If this is done during the growing season then this will actually
increase overall root mass by stimulating root growth all around. The more root
mass/depth that we have; the more we can push the limits on our golf course
each and every day.
Earlier I talked
about the removal of thatch being one of the key reasons why Grounds Teams aerate
golf courses. So what is thatch? Thatch is the accumulation of an organic layer
consisting of dead/decomposing leaves, stems and roots. It will act like a
sponge and can hold multiple amounts of its own weight in water at the surface.
When thatch is in excess and wet conditions are at hand, it can contribute to
mechanical damage such as scalping. This is caused by the front and rear
rollers settling in this sponge like material which can cause the mower blades
to cut turf at much lower height. By removing thatch through aeration and
filling the holes with sand, we create an avenue for air and water to penetrate
into the soil which creates better turf all around.
Now that I have
told you some of the benefits of aeration and how it affects you as a golfer, I
am going to talk about what we have done this spring. There are always
obstacles every time aeration is being planned. Weather, labour resources,
equipment and the demand for the golf course staying opened are the main
obstacles that come to mind. What the weather is going to do is often an
obstacle that you have a game plan and a back up plan if the weather decides to
take a turn for the worst.
In the early
spring, we had a lot of wet weather resulting in very soft conditions. With
just a few days to go until the big day and little sun to dry up the course, we
decided to go with our backup plan. Tees, fairways, approaches and collars
remained the same. We used 1/2" hollow tines with a fairly tight spacing
to remove as much thatch as possible. Additionally, we're planning on double aerating #5 & 10 fairways three times this year in an effort to make a more dramatic impact on the thatch. For greens, our game plan went from
removing cores using 5/8" hollow tines to going over greens twice with a
combination of solid and hollow tines. First, we had an aerator set up with
alternating 3/8" solid tines and 1/4" hollow tines. We then followed
in behind with an aerator set up with all bayonet tines. This was combined with
a heavy topdress and brushing to fill in the holes which create channels for
air and water to flow through the soil profile.
The result of
this plan was a lot of
disturbance to the soil with little disruption to
golfers. Our healing time on greens was expected to be 10-14 days. I would encourage
all Members and Guests to come to the golf course this week and check out the
condition and playability of the greens. We are currently in the process of
finishing up fairways and approaches and will be starting tees next week as our
labour restricts us from completing all areas at once.
I have provided a few websites
below for additional information if you wish to read more on the topic:
Some of you may have noticed that despite my efforts, a couple of geese have been successful in rearing some goslings around Hole 8 and Hole 12 area. If you hit your ball near them, please approach with care as the parents can be quite aggressive. I am a trained professional and I know how to handle them, so if you see me chasing them down please don't try to copy me as it's dangerous and you can't run as fast as I can. 
Earlier I talked
about the removal of thatch being one of the key reasons why Grounds Teams aerate
golf courses. So what is thatch? Thatch is the accumulation of an organic layer
consisting of dead/decomposing leaves, stems and roots. It will act like a
sponge and can hold multiple amounts of its own weight in water at the surface.
When thatch is in excess and wet conditions are at hand, it can contribute to
mechanical damage such as scalping. This is caused by the front and rear
rollers settling in this sponge like material which can cause the mower blades
to cut turf at much lower height. By removing thatch through aeration and
filling the holes with sand, we create an avenue for air and water to penetrate
into the soil which creates better turf all around. 
I apologize for the sudden rise in goose activity on the
front nine of late. The projects around the club house have been keeping me
busy as I am also an accomplished hole digger. 
My team and I have now been asked a few times “what
is with all the holes and digging around the clubhouse and 10th tee?” Well, one of
the club’s and GolfBC’s main goals over the past few years is to become self
sufficient with irrigation water. The past two falls we have spent a great deal
of effort to expand our reservoir to a capacity that we feel will allow us to
irrigate the entire golf course and practice facility without having to utilize
municipal water.
Now that
the reservoir is complete, we are now onto phase 2 of the project. Our practice
facility is currently feed strictly by municipal water and we have no means of
getting our water to it. So phase 2 consists of tying our on course irrigation
system into the practice facility and then upgrading our Pumphouse to become
capable of supplying the water. The
current irrigation mainline ends just behind the 17th tee. Our plan
is to extend it from there, beside the 10th tee leading around the
clubhouse towards the practice facility. With being relatively new to Olympic
View, we knew there would be some bedrock we’d had to deal with, but after
digging a few test holes, we found it was going to be much more of a problem
than originally anticipated. With that, our plan has changed countless times
due to our discoveries but we are now set and have our plan. Much of the
digging should be completed by the weekend and we’re hoping to get a start on
laying some of the pipe early next week. In 2 sections the pipe will actually
lay directly on the surface due to the bedrock. With that, we chose to use High
Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipe as it is flexible and doesn’t deteriorate in
the sun. As the HDPE pipe is flexible, we therefore needed to build restraints
(sleepers) for them to hold the pipe in place. We utilized two different sized
steel pipes acting as a sleeve which were buried in cement. One of the largest
challenges of this project so far was the length of the pipe! Each pipe was 50
feet long and weighed roughly 200lbs.
Once
this is complete, we will move down to the Pumphouse. Our pumps themselves have been well maintained and are
in very good shape, allowing them to last another 15-20 years. The control panel and
piping, well, that is a different story... They are well past their prime and
over the past 2 seasons we’ve experienced small yet inconvenient failures. So
with the increased demand on the pumps, a new control panel and piping is
necessary to perform the task of watering the practice facility. Work on this
is scheduled to start immediately following the completion of the mainline and
should be complete by mid-March. 
