Throughout this project we have had certain holes closed each day. Having a golf hole closed is an invitation to do some undisturbed work. We decided to take advantage of this opportunity by aerifying and verticutting all the fairways. The bulk of this process fell on one of our Assistants, Todd Brunjes. It was perfect having him take responsibility for this. In the morning he would mark all the irrigation heads, valve boxes, etc. and then set out to aerify. Everyone talks about the importance of greens aerification. I feel it is just as important to aerify all major playing surfaces including fairways, collars, tees, etc. Some of the major benefits of aerification are; relieving soil compaction, increased turf rooting, deeper and faster penetration of water, thatch removal, and decreased disease pressure.
Once each fairway is aerified, we let the cores dry until the afternoon. Once they are "cooked" we use a chain mat to break up the cores. Breaking apart the cores allows less wear and tear on the verticutting blades and aids in clean up. Once dragging is complete the verticutting mower comes out. Verticutting reels are mounted on our fairway units. The reels are a set of vertical circular blades that are mounted on a horizontal shaft. The blades spin and slice into the turf removing thatch and debris. Another benefit, one which we are going after, is promoting vertical growth of the turf and reducing grain. The verticutting unit produces copious amount of debris and blowers are needed to clean up the mess. This process has not been done in many years, and our fairways will benefit tremendously.
