Aerification Schedule Cancel The title field is required!

1. Justin Lonon

   

   1 posts
   
   6/22/2012 10:06 AM

   I was just wondering how many days you get for aerification recovery at your course? We have 27 holes at our facility and we aerify nine holes per day. Unfortunately, we are asked to open each course the day after aerification and some of the holes are not completely filled with sand. We come back the following week to topdresses to fill the remaining holes. I have been worn out this week with this situation and want to know what other do during aerifciation.

   
   
   
   
2. Ashton Alan W

   
   6/22/2012 10:06 AM

   Justin,
   
   I think most all of us have to open up the next day... just the nature of the beast! With having 27 holes, you may be able to make arrangements to spread out the coring of your three nines... maybe!
   
   I have 18 holes of Miniverde... we do nine each day and open the following day. One thing I do differently now is that we use a steel drag mat on the day of... allows us to get the sand moving to the holes. On the following days, we only touch them up with a coco mat... not moving nearly as much, but seems to get the remaining holes filled in. We don't run a mower on them for a good four or five days... the coco mat leaves a reasonable surface and we don't pick up all the sand that we spent so much effort putting down.
   
   Works for us... your results may vary!

   
   
   
   
3. Baker Daniel

   
   6/22/2012 10:06 AM

   We get two days but only since I showed them the difference the second day makes. Working sand is totally different when it is dry in the afternoon on the second day. At a 27 hole facility I would push for 9 on Monday/Tuesday the second 0 on Wednesday/Thursday and the third 9 the following Monday/Tuesday. You are still on a relatively condensed timeframe and you will not impact weekend play with the actual aerification. Depending on your process, greens should be puttable on the third day.

   
   
   
   
4. Justin VanLanduit

   

   0 posts
   
   6/22/2012 11:06 AM

   I would agree that most of us are opening the day after, or try to at least. The previous course I was at had 27 holes and we were able to get them to give us the ability to close a 9 for Monday thru Thursday where we would aerify everything (greens, tees, approaches, and fairways) and have ready to open Friday, sometimes Thursday afternoon. We'd take three weeks to carry this out. Seemed to work very well and always gave the members 18 holes to play on and by the time you were finished with all 27 the first course was completely healed and the second was just about there. Very nice luxury to be able to do that. Plus with 27 holes, I find it very taxing to be able to do a very good and detailed job in a day. Best of luck!
   
   Justin

   
   
   
   
5. Neidhardt John J

   
   6/23/2012 5:06 AM

   At our 63 hole complex, growing bermuda grass on a coastal barrier island on the Georgia coast, we close each course for 7 days following an aerification. This works for us since our "growing season" and slow season coincide. Our courses our filled during the winter with snowbirds but our cultural practices take place during the summer when play has significantly dropped off. The advantage of being such a large facility is that guests always have a quality surface to play on while we use the full seven days to recover following an aerification. We aerify each course 2-3 annually, and book those dates 6 months in advance. Works for us.

   
   
   
   
6. James Smith

   

   112 posts
   
   6/23/2012 6:06 AM

   Only 18 holes here but we start aerifying the greens on Monday with our objective being to get all 18 greens punched on Monday and if need be we do the practice greens on Tuesday (if we have problems). Where I am different is that Monday is strictly used for punching the holes and cleaning it up. Just a little info here, we use our sand pro to Punch the cores off the green (a piece of alum. pipe is split and placed on the bottom of the blade) and my crew shovels all of the cores up and hauls them away. I then use a water hose the jet off all remaining debris (about 30-45min each green).
   On Tuesday we close the back nine completely but start topdressing on the front (ahead of the golfers), by the time we get to the back the dew is generally gone and we can start dragging the greens and adding more sand as needed. We generally complete the back nine around 1-2pm and we open the back nine and close the front nine and then start dragging the front side. We do not leave until all greens were completed. By Wednesday we open all holes but work around the golfers dragging more sand into the holes. We generally work Mon-Wednesday from 6:00am til 6:00pm and can get done on Thursday by 3-4pm. We do not attempt to cut the greens until the following Monday.
   
   The key is closing 9 holes and at the beginning we had tons of complaints until they saw how much quicker we could get the bulk of the work done without them in our way. now no one complains about playing the front nine twice. By Thursday they are generally saying how great their ball rolls on the sand.
   
   We do start rolling the greens on Thursday afternoon and continue through Saturday.
   
   you need to do what works for you and your crew. I only have five guys working the aerification process so I am limited. Things I have adapted to is the small things that makes it easier on my five guys, like using the sand pro or washing off the greens with water. The course down the street still uses level lawns to push the plugs, now that is a hard days work.

   
   
   
   
7. Christopher Flynn

   

   0 posts
   
   6/23/2012 10:06 AM

   Our aerification program consists of 3 - 1/4" corings (May, June, Sept.) and 1 double 1/2" core in July. For the 1/4" we are closed 1 day - do all the punching, cleanup, fertilizing, and topdressing in 1 day (weather permitting). We are open the next day but the first tee time is at 9am - this gives us a little bit more time to wrap up any loose ends.
   
   I do like the concept of doing only 9-holes per day as it gives you more time to do a more thorough job and you can keep 9-holes open to keep the proshop happy.
   
   We do have 2 courses - so when we are closed we can divert play next door. For our Double 1/2" core we'll be closed 2 days.

   
   
   
   
8. Churchill Kevin

   
   6/23/2012 10:06 AM

   We have done it 2 ways in the past.........18 Holes.
   
   1) Not preferred......adequate labor and equipment is necessary (2 aerifiers, etc.)
   
   Day 1: Not closed. Last group goes off of #1 at 2:45 P.M. We follow behind with aerifier, sweeper, etc. until dark.
   Day 2: Not Closed. Golf starts on #10 at 6:45 A.M. We finish whatever we need to on the front side from the night before. Last group tees off of #10 at 2:45 P.M. We follow behind with aerifier, sweeper, etc. until dark.
   Day 3: Open as normal. Finish whatever we need to on the back side from the night before.
   
   2) Preferred, but with less revenue coming in.
   
   Day 1: Last group goes off of the front at 2:45 P.M. We follow behind with aerifier, sweeper, etc. until dark.
   Day 2: Closed for the day. Gives us the ability to be detailed in what we do. Also aerify tees and fairways.
   Day 3: Open as normal.
   
   Kevin Churchill
   Kelly Plantation Golf Club

   
   
   
   
9. James Schmid

   

   1 posts
   
   6/23/2012 11:06 AM

   We have 27 holes and close 9 at a time, when we are ready we open that 9 and close a different 9. We dont have too much play here in the summer so it works good.
   
   Does everybody really have golfers clamoring to play the next day on greens that were just aerified the day before that they have to rush through it like that? If so I guess thats good.

   
   
   
   
10. Timothy Walker

    

    0 posts
    
    6/23/2012 6:06 PM

    they are clamoring to play during the entire process around here...if we aerify sod, and close a green with a temp theyre crying, what you wanna putt on aeration plugs???

    
    
    
    
11. Melvin Waldron

    

    43 posts
    
    6/24/2012 4:06 PM

    James Schmid said: We have 27 holes and close 9 at a time, when we are ready we open that 9 and close a different 9. We dont have too much play here in the summer so it works good.
    
    Does everybody really have golfers clamoring to play the next day on greens that were just aerified the day before that they have to rush through it like that? If so I guess thats good.

    
    
    James they are only clamoring to play here because the pro shop doesn't always warn them when they call, just when they get here. Don't know why, well I have my hunch.
    
    Mel

    
    Melvin H. Waldron III, CGCS, Horton Smith Golf Course, City of Springfield/Greene County MO
    
    
12. Andy Jorgensen

    

    1 posts
    
    6/24/2012 4:06 PM

    With three courses, it's easy for us to close for a week at a time.
    
    But, my old course was 27 holes, private membership. We closed a 9 each week all summer. We didn't have enough play to justify keeping all 27 open. Sometimes we'd close a 9 for 2-3 weeks, just because we could.
    
    If I had to do 18 in a day, it couldn't get done. Not enough time in the day to do it right. Not to mention what about aerifying everything else? Does it just not get done? Or is the inconvenience and disruption spread out even longer by doing it ahead of play each morning for a few more days? Are you charging full price once you reopen or a reduced rate? Communicating the course conditions ahead of time, or letting them find out when they show up? How much of that play won't come back after seeing the conditions of the greens a day after getting aerified? Sure, you try to explain it to them, but, "the course down the street never looks this way"....

    
    
    
    
13. John Borcher

    

    0 posts
    
    6/25/2012 9:06 PM

    I am at a public 27 hole course and we aerify 2 times a year late April with 1/2 star tines and we close 9 each day and that is easy to get them done but the second round is in Sept following labor day. We pull 1/2" cores and at times it gets hard to get them done because they usually want them open by 4-5pm for leagues to play.
    
    We get loads of play and the golfers raise all kinds of stink when we aerify but they keep coming back so don't know if the pro shop is giving them a discount but some groups take a week off but most just play and complain.

    
    
    
    
14. Gary Carls

    

    19 posts
    
    6/26/2012 8:06 AM

    How many days? How about just a few hours at best. At a public facility where we punch, clean them up, topdress, drag it in and then re-open for play as we go. Best case is we can keep our practice greens closed for a day or two when we do them. We cut holes in the approach areas as we are doing each green and try and do it so the players never play more than 2 or 3 temps while out there. Starting on Monday morning with most of the staff involved, it usually takes us two full days to get through everything. Our real goal is to have the greens back to decent playing condition by the weekend. The joys of true municipal golf.

    
    Gary K. Carls, CGCS, President - Oakland Turfgrass Education Initiative
    
    
15. Verdun Scott M

    
    6/26/2012 8:06 AM

    We have 18 holes is all but we do not close, even the day of aerification. If we are lucky enough to be able to schedule it for a Monday then member play is not allowed until noon, the past two years we had Monday outings when I wanted to aerify so we did it Tuesday ahead of the ladies, back 9 first then battle the afternoon play on the front 9. It sucks but we deal with it.

    
    
    
    
16. Douglas Eggert

    

    1 posts
    
    6/26/2012 9:06 AM

    I have 3.5 acres of putting surfaces that we close for the second Tuesday in September. I use 1 Procore 648 with the core collector, which works fantastic. My problem is that it takes forever to fill holes, which is an all day adventure. This year it took 45 topdresser loads to fill. I use a minimum of .5" holes 4" deep. I have one person who brushes and is dizzy by the end of the day. I never filled holes completly until the last few seasons and the Golf Pro's insistence.
    
    My dilemma is the school district has 2 high school golf teams and they expect to use the course for matches... I let the golf coaches figure it out, and if they schedule a match they don't get the course before 3:30 pm. And make sure when they show up there is irrigation flying and it shuts off at 3:30. And the back nine is unavailable.
    
    The most important process of the maintenance practices, and it has to be hurried. I had in the past 2 days, but forbid we cut into the profit margin. I've been lucky the last 5 years of 80 degrees and sun with a little wind.