10th February 2020
Monday 10th February ~ COURSE CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE
A reminder that the Golf Course will be Closed All Day due to Greens maintenance.
There are very few golfers that I have ever met who are happy that the golf course is about to undergo maintenance. Not surprisingly the majority of golfers seem to consider Coring or core aeration to be more correct as an extremely inconvenient interruption to their golf. Not to mention how much the resulting bumpy greens for the following weeks. Maybe that’s why the rest of the golfers seem to think that coring is just an evil plot to get back at the golfers by the greens staff as a sort of revenge for digging up their course the rest of the year!!
The reality is that core aeration is simply a short term disruption That has long term benefits for golf courses. Without a regular program of core aeration the surface of the greens would dramatically worsen over a few years and if not dealt with they would eventually die. One of the biggest problems that golfers have with this maintenance Is that the best time to do the core aeration is generally around the time that all the golfers want to be playing on the course, just as spring is starting and the golfers are excited about the prospect of golf OR in autumn, just as golfers are winding down knowing that their games are numbered before winter comes.
Which is another way of saying that core aeration is almost always done just as most greens are in their prime playing condition. This is possibly why it upsets so many golfers as putting on good greens is way more fun than navigating cored greens isn’t it? So to help you to deal with this disappointing aspect of the game, which as much as you may wish it didn’t happen Is an absolutely critical part of managing the golf course I thought I’d attempt to explain exactly why it has to happen.
The main goal of core aeration is to produce healthy greens. Regardless of how old the green base is or the local climate which ultimately is good for all the golfers isn’t it? The condition of a green for golfers is normally judged by what they can see on top. For the greens staff however, it has a lot to do with what goes on below the surface. In order for grass to grow well it must have deep, healthy roots. Good roots demand a good supply of oxygen which core aeration helps to achieve, but it’s more than just a way to supply oxygen to the soil. Turns out it has a couple more important objectives: The first is that it relieves soil compaction which happens over time due to the traffic from golfers’ feet as well as course mowing equipment. All that walking around on the greens tends to compact the soil underneath which crushes the air pockets on which the roots depend on to supply oxygen.
The other thing that soil compaction does is that it impacts the greens ability to drain water effectively, this means soft or muddy patches on greens during or after periods of rain which as we all know aren’t very pleasant to putt over or through. The second is that it enables to greens staff to improve the soil mixture around the highest part of a green’s roots if they want to. Lastly, it reduces or prevents the accumulation of excess thatch which if left too long, starts to reduce the speed that the greens can run at.
As a golfer who personally prefers the greens to be as fast as possible that means that I think managing the thatch is a great idea. At this point you should now realise just how important this process is. But how exactly do they do it, you might ask? 
Core aeration is done by mechanically removing soil cores that are about the size of your little finger from the compacted soil on the green – As the image shows
This allows for an infusion of air, water and anything the greens staff wants to add. The holes left are then generally top dressed with sand which helps the soil retain air space, improves the drainage and helps to resist compaction while the green regenerates. The sand also makes it easier for the roots to grow downward which is apparently one of the keys to keeping it healthy.
So the next time you’re ready to complain when the word ‘coring’ is mentioned, remember that without this preventative maintenance the greens you play on will be muddy, bumpy and slow within a few years and completely dead within a few more. So it’s not really done because the greens staff hate golfers – I think the real reason is actually quite the opposite!
My advice? Use the down time to do other things, like regrip your golf clubs or take some golf lessons.
Once the greens have recovered and are back to normal You can then get back to playing well.
Good Golfing
Heath
Director of Golf.
(Article information taken from Golf Digest)
