On July 31 the Club begin a significant investment in its greens by contracting with a company that specializes in deep aeration. The name of the company is Aer-core, Inc.
In the aeration process soil from the holes is removed and the holes will be "top dressed" with sand which is brushed into the holes. The end result will be an increased sand to soil profile getting more air and water deeper to the root structure of the plant and improving the over all drainage of the green.
The first step in the process was a deep solid tine aeration of the Greens. This is analogous to putting a pitch fork in the soil and moving it back and forth. This process is to loosen the soil. This video of the 6th Green getting the deep solid tine aeration. This process was done to all of the greens
After the deep tine aeration the green looks like this. |
| The next step was to use the Drill and Fill machines to drill down 12"-14" in the the soil and fill the hole with kiln dried sand. The more aggressive drill and fill process was done to 1,2,3,7,12 and the practice putting green. |
After the drill and fill process the green looks like this |
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| The next step was to use the standard aeration machines pull 4” x 5/8” aeration cores out on a 2” centers in the the soil. This was done to all of the greens. | |
After the drill and fill and the standard 4" aeration the greens looks like this |
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| Clean up of the cores is the next step in reconditioning the greens at Edgmont Country Club | |
8th green in the process of having the cores picked up |
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| After the core clean up additional kiln dried sand spread on surface and swept into the holes | |
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| Sweeping Sand and Seeding Greens | |
| A General Overview of the activity on First Green | |
After the greens were aerated and cleaned they were pro-seeded with a type of bent grass known as A-1. The significant investment in this agronomic practice of the greens will help create an environment for drier and firmer greens improving the overall condition and health of the greens.
You may notice some scalped areas were the grass was cut to the same height as the putting surface. As part of this reconditioning of the greens all of the greens will be returned size they were in 2004 when the irrigation system was updated. Doing all of this work (the aeration and the scalping) now will allow us to take advantage of the late summer growing window for grass minimizing recovery time. The greens should be fully recovered by early September 2013.
The goal of the Edgmont Greens Department is to address the most important part of the golf course, the greens. We are attempting to make these putting surfaces firmer and healthier to handle the unpredictable rainfall and humidity. Each year, we know what June, July, and August brings us in terms of hot and humid weather. This is our plan of action to be proactive and win this battle. For those interested here is additional information on aeration of greens on the website of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
Aer-core, Inc. are specialists at deep aeration of greens. I have used them at the golf courses I previously worked for and other area public and private clubs have used them. Aer-core helped Aronimink prepare for the ATT and Merion prepare for the Open.
