You are probably aware that all putting greens were punched last week with 1/4" hollow tines, followed by a heavier than normal sand application. This week, we did an aggressive grooming/verticutting twice and are tentatively scheduling a third for Thursday afternoon.
As stated on previous blog posts, the reason for the aeration was to allow oxygen into the rootzone and let other gasses like Carbon Dioxide to escape the rootzone. After a summer's worth of maintenance and play, putting greens become sealed off, making it difficult to move water and nutrients down into the rootzone. Punching millions of tiny holes at the surface that penetrate to a 3" depth, is an excellent way to solve that challenge.
This week we are performing 3 aggressive grooming practices as well. The purpose of these is two-fold. First, grooming encourages upright growth of the turf, which leads to smoother ball roll. Second, by thinning the surface out ever so lightly, it leads to faster ball roll, which is what we are specifically after. We have a great week of weather ahead of us and it's my hope it lasts through next week's member-guest tournament. Due to a number of factors, the greens have been slightly slower than what you are accustomed to over the past two weeks and its our goal to gain that speed back.
On another note, there are still some dry spots out there on the fairways that will recover this fall. When grass dries out, it enters a state of dormancy so the plant can conserve what's left of its carbohydrate reserves. This morning, we are applying a wetting agent to fairways. This aids in the movement of water below the fairways. Just as putting greens can become sealed off, other playing surfaces like tees and fairways do the same thing, Wetting agent applications and aerification are 2 good ways to get moisture into the soil to rewet these dry areas.