Aeration and play
25-02-2010

The key to success on many golf courses depends on course utilisation. Many golf courses are experiencing revenue dropping in the following categories; clubhouse revenue vis-à-vis poorer bar takings and, membership fees. To compensate for that course managers are under pressure to keep greens open for play at all times. That puts considerable pressure on traditional course maintenance procedures such as aeration.

In the not too distant past it was not uncommon for courses to be closed for up to a week to allow aeration to take place, especially with hollow coring. The procedures of coring, core collection and top dressing, vital to the green-keepers maintenance program, did upset revenue. However, aeration specialist companies such as Groundsman Industries of Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland do feel they have eased this burden to ensure play is as soon as possible.

At coring season, either in spring or autumn, they have produced fast pedestrian and tractor mounted machines to speed up the process. For greens up to 450-500 square metres the Groundsman Pedestrian 460SDR model is as fast as any tractor mounted machine over a similar area. However, greens above 500 square metres, the Groundsman 8120 model (4ft) and the 12180 model (6ft) are fast and efficient.

The Groundsman Flexblade Core Collector attachment saves valuable time clearing the greens. This simple implement was developed by Groundsman Industries to attach directly to the aerator machine, collecting the cores as they are being produced, this enables a single operator to core and collect in one pass. The benefits of this system are huge, apart from the obvious ones that it saves money in time and labour and keeps the greens in play. Less obvious, if the weather turns nasty as it often and inevitably does, the cores are never at risk of a soaking while scattered all over the green and as all green keeper are aware, freshly cored greens are vulnerable to heavy equipment, damage such as rutting from follow up operation is thus avoided. For those clubs who have alternative brands of aerators, Groundsman Industries have developed the 3 Point Linkage Collection system which can be fitted to a compact tractor or utility vehicle to ensure swift collection.

Apart from finding the time to do the job, the fear of damaging the surface is often an inhibitor to carrying out many aeration tasks and this is especially true during peak playing season which also happens to coincide with peak growing. It is when the heat is in the ground and the roots are most vigorous that the huge benefits can be gained from aeration, especially a shallow rooting problem. Ironically, these areas tend to be avoided because shallow rooted grass tends to lift like a carpet when aerated. Some aeration applications and indeed, equipment are more prone to lift the surface than others. An elliptical plunge tine action minimises surface lifting and for many years, Groundsman Industries have advised it's customers to set the machine to produce fewer holes farther apart in shallow rooted areas but increase the frequency of operation rather than fit turf finger retainers. Sound advice no doubt but over the last two years Groundsman have recognised that Green-keepers are simple too busy and are under too much pressure to spend time identifying and treating shallow rooted areas differently from the rest. A Turf Retainer system segmented and independently sprung loaded to follow the surface contours is now available for all Groundsman pedestrian and tractor mounting aerators allowing even greens with delicate root problems to be aerated as normal.

Groundsman highly recommend needle tining all greens throughout the growing season in a three week cycle, For example, six greens a week in rotation. Needle tining has minimal effect but huge benefits and greens are in play after a cut by a Greens mower. Needle tining is so important for the modern green allowing the moisture and nutrients to seep down from the surface encouraging the vigorously growing roots down rather than up resulting in much more durable grass.

Aeration need not be the hassle it used to be and down time can be greatly reduced. For much more information including an aeration quick guide please click on Groundsman banner on home page.











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