Rossi ramblings are conjecture. Roch's clip I posted earlier says that none of them make any correlated difference even topdressing if you look at charts. The dots are all over the place for topdressing.
I am afraid my Talk Radio analogy is best case scenario. Results are from Chas Schmid's Master's thesis that is yet to be published.
This theme should be researched properly. There are too many variables, protocols should be set up to clarify the murky waters.
http://www.turfnet.com/view_news.php?obj_id=786 Research shows that other factors contribute to spongy greens. For example, organic matter builds up at the surface as greens age, and that material also can retain water. Stowell and other researchers believe that aerification is an optimal way to try to relieve those conditions, because the holes offer the perfect medium for applying densely packed sand. Simply topdressing, he said, may not work as well. The reason is due to the filtering effect of the turfgrass canopy. Only the smaller sand particles make their way into the surface of the green while the 1 mm and larger particles are removed by mowers. Without the larger particles being incorporated into the root rootzone, the surface of the green might soften over time.
Other researchers, including Gaussoin and Frank S. Rossi, Ph.D., of Cornell University have shown that aerifying with solid or needle tines can be just as effective as core aeration.
And Charles Schmid, formerly a graduate student at Nebraska, showed in his master's thesis (still awaiting publication) that nothing outperformed straight topdressing sand applied at a rate of 18 cubic feet to 22 cubic feet per 1,000 square feet per year at slowing organic matter accumulation on creeping bentgrass.
None of which has yet proven that the use of sand is better than withholding water at producing firm putting surfaces.
"Greens are too dry. We all know that," Gaussoin said.