Fairway Slicing

The maintenance staff began slicing fairways this morning.  Slicing fairways is a great way to alleviate the negative impacts of compaction from cart and mower traffic.  Over time, compaction tightens up the soil and reduces the ability of the turf to produce long healthy roots.  This practice will allow water, nutrients and oxygen to get into the root zone more effectively.
The machine we use is called a shatter-tine machine and uses curved "knives" that go into the turf and twist the ground as they come out.  This twisting motion fractures the soil which allows the roots room to grow.  Once the fairway has been sliced, the fairway mower follows to clean up all the tufts left behind.  The fairways are cleaning up nicely and there should be minimal disruption to play during this process.