A Golf Blog

Wild Weather

About 90 minutes ago, it started raining. We've had about 2.5 inches of rain. My guess is tomorrow we'll play lift clean and place.

How's this for a wet weather golf cart? These two scenes brought to mind a storm we had back on March 6th. Can you say lift, clean, and shovel?

Core Aeration

I don’t think there’s a course superintendent on the planet (well, maybe one or two) that doesn’t see the long term value of core aeration. Golf course turf (greens, fairways, rough, common areas, etc.) all benefit from the additional oxygen as well as improved water and fertilizer absorption.

Unfortunately, not all courses are created equal. Some have good sandy loam soil that absorbs water and fertilizer in the right quantities. This produces lush turf that’s a pleasure to play from. Other areas have their challenges – imagine trying to grow grass on gummy clay type soil that compacts and dries like concrete – pretty much what we have here at the ranch.

It’s not our superintendent’s fault; as a matter of fact, he’s implemented several programs to improve turf grasses here. Up to now, core aeration has been limited to our greens. He tried fairways once, several years ago, and that turned into a muddy, gloppy, mess. It rained, the clay didn’t dry, and there was no way to efficiently pick up the wet cores of clay.

This year is a different story. Early on, a budget proposal called for a core processor; something that would gobble up the cores after aeration, pulverize them into little tiny bits of clay and dirt, and disperse the particles across the area that’s just been aerated. It works remarkably well – comes from Toro. I also shot a short film. For marketing and spec information from Toro, click here.

Plug busting at it’s best.