Aeration Recovery

It's been just over 14 days since we began the fall aeration of greens and I have to say the recovery process went just as planned.  Ideal weather had a big part to play in the success of the process, however, I cannot diminish the efforts made by our team.  Timely applications of fertilizer, and diligent hand watering have kept each green in optimum health to minimize the time required for recovery.

Now that the holes are over 95% healed in, our focus this week has been to improve the playability of the greens.  The application of a growth regulator this past Monday has significantly reduced the amount of clippings collected each day, which will prolong the cut and improve ball roll.  Yesterday the staff ramped up efforts to improve smoothness by mowing the greens at .130", which is .005" lower, and then rolling the greens.  We noticed an immediate increase in both speed and smoothness after this process.  Today, we continued this process by double cutting greens at opposite directions to ensure all grass is cut and we continue to smooth the putting surface.  Tomorrow morning, the cutting height on greens will be lowered another .005" to .125".

Overall, we felt like the aeration process, and subsequent recovery, went very smoothly.  The weather has been ideal and we feel that the greens are set up perfectly for fantastic finish to the 2014 golf season!