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

[flap]

Depending on how they aerate and there are several ways after 3 weeks they should be good to go.If they vericut then 6-10 days as good as new.If you deep core aerate and use 90/10 top dress then 4 weeks.If they use the little hole punch and 80/20 1 week tops.There is a corse here on Long Island that Water aerates which is forcing high pressure water into the root system and you do not see a thing.Do not know all that much about it but it is the only course I have ever seen that uses it so I am thinking it might not be to good.If they use 80/20 to top dress {80 percent sand and 20 percent michagan pete}they usually grow back faster especially in the fall because Bent grass likes the cooler weather and higher nitrogen content of 80-20 mix.

[Terrible]

On 9/8/2008 at 12:06 PM, Lefty731PM said:

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.

I just don't keep score. I'm a pretty good putter, So not keeping score makes for a happy day. Aerated greens ,make this a practice round

[Buckeyebowman]

I think it depends on the course and the superintendent. I've played courses where, 2 weeks after punching the greens, they had knit up and were putting beautifully. I've played other courses where greens that were punched the previous Fall still weren't healed mid-Spring the next year!

Also, I found out that some courses double punch their greens. Heck, last year Mill Creek punched "everything"! Tees, fairways, rough, and greens!

[Typhoon92]

22 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

I think it depends on the course and the superintendent. I've played courses where, 2 weeks after punching the greens, they had knit up and were putting beautifully. I've played other courses where greens that were punched the previous Fall still weren't healed mid-Spring the next year!

Also, I found out that some courses double punch their greens. Heck, last year Mill Creek punched "everything"! Tees, fairways, rough, and greens!

Punching everything...sounds like what they did at my place.  Our course gets absolutely rotten reviews online some regarding conditions but mostly about the head pro that runs everything.  They rarely have outings here but they had one and  2 days before they punched everything.  This was last week, I bet they were pissed.  Those people won't be back.

Our greens were the best they had been in years and they punched them with huge holes....unplayable for the most part.

[HJJ003]

Round these parts...it’s usually 3 weeks before they are rolling really true again. Played Memorial Park back in April (one of my fav in Houston) and it was punched three weeks to the day I played. Greens were dang near perfect. 

[sheepdog]

Depends on the greenskeeper and the weather. Around here two weeks with a good greenskeeper, a little sand and some rain.

[jetsknicks1]

On 9/8/2008 at 3:06 PM, Lefty731PM said:

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.

What’s wrong with calling a 2 putt? If you’re not playing in a tournament or using the score for HC purposes, what’s the harm? My regular group will call 2 putts from certain distances if the greens are in rough shape. As long as everybody is on board, I don’t see the problem.

[Shorty]

On 9/9/2008 at 3:50 AM, blue3715 said:

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.

??????? !!!!!!!! 

Aerated greens do not give you the right to "give yourself a 2 putt on the card".

Also - where I play, after about 10 days the greens are perfect. 6 weeks? Really?

[Anthony Keane]

As a greenkeeper I can say, or the message coming from the golfer, theirs no right time to core greens because hate to putt on cored greens.

So after many years of experience the  best time to core greens is when they will recover the fastest which will be in May or June when you have the most growth to recover

Anthony Keane

[Buckeyebowman]

On 5/28/2018 at 9:50 PM, Typhoon92 said:

Punching everything...sounds like what they did at my place.  Our course gets absolutely rotten reviews online some regarding conditions but mostly about the head pro that runs everything.  They rarely have outings here but they had one and  2 days before they punched everything.  This was last week, I bet they were pissed.  Those people won't be back.

Our greens were the best they had been in years and they punched them with huge holes....unplayable for the most part.

Some of the better courses around here have gone to aerators that punch smaller diameter holes. It really does make a difference if you have to putt on them. Especially if they don't skimp on the sand, which I've never understood! I've putted on some punched greens with tons of empty holes. Why? Is sand really that expensive? Or, how lazy is your grounds crew? 

On 1/11/2020 at 3:27 PM, Anthony Keane said:

As a greenkeeper I can say, or the message coming from the golfer, theirs no right time to core greens because hate to putt on cored greens.

So after many years of experience the  best time to core greens is when they will recover the fastest which will be in May or June when you have the most growth to recover

Anthony Keane

Oh! I can just imagine the outrage around here if a course decided to punch greens at that time of year! 

[Typhoon92]

The end of last year I was out by myself and the Super was out there walking up one of the fairways.  The course really ended up looking great and I took the time to thank him.  I imagine all he ever gets is complaints so I thought it would be nice for him to be thanked.

 

i also asked him about the aerating and why sometimes the holes are huge and other times they do smaller holes that you barely notice and no sand.  He told me it has to do with the depth.  The small holes go deep so it’s a different type of aerification .

[Peeved]

I know this an old post but I found it doing research about hollow tining and the poor state of our course last YEAR! I'm in UK, I believe clay based soil and our golf course is flat. Last year the greens were so bad for the whole year I bought it up at AGM. Our greens took literally months to recover from hollow tining. Incredibly bumpy for weeks and weeks and still look like a cross stitch base. Just as the holes had begun to disappear/grow over (months) and they were JUST beginning to role something close to flat ish, they were hollow tined again and/or spiked. Not one week last year did we have greens that I would class as acceptable/flat/good little alone excellent condition and were very slow. They used to be lovely true, fast, flat greens!! ☹️ I am challenging the club on this matter.

The course is now getting wetter and of course pesticides etc have been banned. Any comments asap would be appreciated.

Thank you

[jmanbooyaa]

Reviving an old thread. I player today on aerated greens and also extremely damaged greens. I can’t begin to explain how much it takes me out of a round from the first green on. Especially when it is not made public or clear by pro shop they aerated. Worst round of the year. Just had no enjoyment in the round from the 1st green through 18th. I watched my first putt bounce and changed direction due to large aeration marks. I just don’t have the mental makeup to want to play like that. Which is 100% on me. 

[Double Mocha Man]

1 hour ago, jmanbooyaa said:

Reviving an old thread. I player today on aerated greens and also extremely damaged greens. I can’t begin to explain how much it takes me out of a round from the first green on. Especially when it is not made public or clear by pro shop they aerated. Worst round of the year. Just had no enjoyment in the round from the 1st green through 18th. I watched my first putt bounce and changed direction due to large aeration marks. I just don’t have the mental makeup to want to play like that. Which is 100% on me. 

When the aeration season is upon us I'll always check the website before making a tee time.  If I don't trust that I'll make a phone call.

[Missouri Swede]

2 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

When the aeration season is upon us I'll always check the website before making a tee time.  If I don't trust that I'll make a phone call.

My course posts it on the monthly calendar in the clubhouse (where they list schedule of scrambles, club tournaments, etc.). 

[wacker]

On 9/8/2008 at 5:55 PM, ks8829 said:

approximately 4-5 weeks.

Don't think much to your green keepers. Within a week our greens are back to normal

On 9/18/2008 at 4:59 AM, flap said:

Depending on how they aerate and there are several ways after 3 weeks they should be good to go.If they vericut then 6-10 days as good as new.If you deep core aerate and use 90/10 top dress then 4 weeks.If they use the little hole punch and 80/20 1 week tops.There is a corse here on Long Island that Water aerates which is forcing high pressure water into the root system and you do not see a thing.Do not know all that much about it but it is the only course I have ever seen that uses it so I am thinking it might not be to good.If they use 80/20 to top dress {80 percent sand and 20 percent michagan pete}they usually grow back faster especially in the fall because Bent grass likes the cooler weather and higher nitrogen content of 80-20 mix.

If the green keepers know what they are doing, everything should be OK within a week 

[iacas]

Took about ten days at the local course (mid-August) before the greens were pretty much back to normal. And that was with the pretty big plugs/holes taken out, not the really small tines.

[saevel25]

I always heard courses say about 1-2 weeks. I remember one course had something go wrong, and it was still bumpy for like 3-4 months afterwards. Like, they didn't fill in the holes well enough to get the grass to level out.