Aerated Greens: How Long to Return to "Normal" Play?

[Fraser]

Last week I went to play at my local muni and they had aerated all the greens that day and putting was, well a bloody nightmare! It was like putting on concrete covered in gravel. I think I had three one putts all day and had three putts from 12ft etc...

How long does it take after being aerated for the greens to return to normal? They were done on Wednesday and we had a pretty decent rainstorm (TS Hanna) come through on Saturday, otherwise it has just been pretty warm.

Does that hard surface gradually just seep away with the rain or even a light breeze? I was looking to go and play today but can't be bothered to go down and play if the greens are as bad as they were last week. At my old course back in England I don't recall the aerated greens being such a nightmare.

Thanks
Fraser

[ks8829]

approximately 4-5 weeks.

[blue3715]

If you get a good heavy rain, the grass should grow in pretty fast. But they tend to seed the greens as well so you should kiss the next 6 weeks goodbye.

Generally once the ball is inside 20 feet, give yourself a 2 putt on the card.

[RemyM]

4 to 6 weeks, where the hell do you guys play? My course is doing them today and tomorrow, he top dresses with sand after and drags it into the holes. After a week they are good and back to normal in 2 weeks.

[ks8829]

4 to 6 weeks, where the hell do you guys play? My course is doing them today and tomorrow, he top dresses with sand after and drags it into the holes. After a week they are good and back to normal in 2 weeks.

You can play but with aerated holes and sandy greens and not normal greens

[TinCupTampa]

I would say playable in in 3-4 weeks but will still be a little bumpy. 45 days to get close to normal.

[Lefty731PM]

If you get a good heavy rain, the grass should grow in pretty fast. But they tend to seed the greens as well so you should kiss the next 6 weeks goodbye.

Where I play after 1 week you can barely notice they've been done.

As for giving yourself 2 putts on the card inside 20 feet _ you certainly do not do that! Unless that's a temporary rule at your club. Everyone has the same conditions, so you putt out and too bad if you miss a few short ones. You don't make up rules to suit yourself.

[NM Golf]

It depends on several factors. So it could be 2 weeks or 6 weeks or anything in between. I played on aerated greens this weekend at the Newport Cup that were actually pretty nice. I was extremely impressed with how well they were rolling and I think they had only been done 3 or 4 days before we teed it up.

Things like small tines, better or finer sand with fewer pebbles, rain, type of grass, weather, amount of play they get, all add up to decide how long it takes to get them back in shape.

[kafka01]

It depends on several factors. So it could be 2 weeks or 6 weeks or anything in between. I played on aerated greens this weekend at the Newport Cup that were actually pretty nice. I was extremely impressed with how well they were rolling and I think they had only been done 3 or 4 days before we teed it up.

We do this a couple times a year on our greens - and it doesnt take nowhere as long as a couple weeks to be normal again. But i´ve seen quite different timeframes for that - it depends. One factor is, how intensive the greens get aerated (small vs. big holes) - another factor is the seasonal timing - when everything grows like wild, the greens will be back in no time. If you do that late/very early in the season, the greens take a long time to recover.

If greens are freshly aerated, i dont even bother about putting them...

[Fraser]

6 weeks? Wow.

I guess I was thinking more of the timeframe for the sandy look and feel of the greens had gone away so I'm putting on grass...sounds like it varies from course to course quite a bit.

When I was at the pro shop last week they said to start on #5 as they were working on #1-#4 and by the time I'd got to #18 I could play 1-4. When I got to 1-4 it was so fresh you could see a little track where the putts were rolling, I was one of the first groups through after it was done! Somehow I still managed to birdie one of the holes!

[Big_M]

It depends on several factors. So it could be 2 weeks or 6 weeks or anything in between. I played on aerated greens this weekend at the Newport Cup that were actually pretty nice. I was extremely impressed with how well they were rolling and I think they had only been done 3 or 4 days before we teed it up.

this is the best answer thus far... in just a few days you can get a good roll if everything goes right and they do a good job... but back to being unnoticable it is likely in the 3-6 week span. I have played at a few courses where only about a week after aerification they rolled good enough that it may not have even cost me a stroke.

[bigoak]

size of tines and topdressing or not will effect the time for recovery. I hate all greens and would never call them normal, they recover but are never normal.

[RemyM]

size of tines and topdressing or not will effect the time for recovery. I hate all greens and would never call them normal, they recover but are never normal.

And if they didn't aerate and top dress they'd all be dead.

[IowaChop]

As a former superintendent my goal was to get them rolling good in 3-4 days and within a week to ten days you wouldn't be able to tell they were aerated. I was on a 9 hole semi-private course that did not have a lot of play. We were able to close for 2 days to aerate. If some of the aeration holes did not fill completely i would take top dressing mix and spread and brush it in by hand to fill them. Now on busier courses, they can't close and are rushed to get the job done correctly. So to answer the question. There are a lot of variables that could speed up or slow down the recovery process.

[heather stevenson]

It makes a great deal of difference where your golf course is and at which elevation it is. Also the type of grass. i.e.

We punch our greens in may and september. Our weather is nice in May but cold in the evenings in September. we are over 5k ft in the mountains.
In May we have nice evening and warm warm days it takes 2 weeks and we're up and running.
In Spetember it is cold nights and medium warm days 5-6 weeks.
We are trying slicing our greens this month instead of punching I know that will help...wish us luck.

[Saks]

Our greens had not been done for two years and were getting so slow and starting to hold water too. I played 3 days after they got cored and sanded and they were pretty bad, the next week they were slow but after two weeks they were better than before they were done. 4-6 weeks and they were pretty much perfect. Now they are they fastest I have ever seen them (still slow compared to most though I would say!) and it is just coming into spring!

It sucks when they are just done but worth it to have better greens in a few weeks.

[marpr]

They recently aerated the greens at one of my home courses and after about 2.5-3 weeks they were rolling very true and after about 4 they were back to normal.

NB: The ground staff were heavy-rolling the greens a couple of times during the day to keep them as flat as they could.

[Fraser]

I played last week (I was the OP on this thread) and you could tell they had been recently done and didn't play as well as usual but they were much better. I'm probably going to play this afternoon and will see how the last week has helped them.