We successfully finished DryJecting greens today, ahead of play without closing the golf course. Our overall maintenance program is one of the most golfer friendly programs that I have ever experienced because it involves very little disruption, if any during the season. Tomorrow, we will roll greens in the morning and then get back to mowing and rolling on Thursday. By the weekend, the disruption will be minimal and the greens will be back to being pretty well, normal. This practice is fairly non disruptive because no organic matter is removed (like during a traditional aerification). In fact, it basically stuffs more sand into a compact system, resulting in firmer greens. Most golfers will say they like firm greens. Unfortunately there is no easy way to get there without disruption to golf. The cliché, 'you can't have your cake and eat it too' comes to mind. If you want firm greens, these are the types of practices one must endure and tolerate. Interestingly enough, the owner of DryJect said HCC greens are in the top 10% of greens they've worked on based on firmness. This says a lot given how much this group gets around.
As I mentioned before, this process incorporates 30 tons of sand into the total square footage of greens greens. Here is a breakdown of all our practices and how many tons of sand are incorporated during each one:
1. September DryJect: 30 tons
2. November DryJect (2 directions) 60 tons
3. Green hollow tine aerification: 90 tons
4. Graden Greens (3mm blades) 60 tons
5. light, frequent topdressings (every 14 days) 60 tons
TOTAL: 300 tons
With a total square footage of 120,000ft2 of greens, this equates to 300 tons of sand per year incorporated into the greens. This is 600,000lbs. This equates to 5,000lbs of sand per 1000ft2 or 5 lbs. per square foot per year. On a USGA spec green, the USGA Green Section recommends a certain sand quantity per 1,000ft2. I emailed our regional agronomist to find out what that number is and will report that shortly.