How Does Your Course Handle Aerated Fairways?

[MEfree]

Side questions-

How often does your course aerate?

Do they aerate all fairways at once?

Do they remove the aeration plugs or leave them out?

[Fourputt]

I responded with the correct rule (item 2), but I would qualify that with the addition that it's not the course, but my men's club which sets the rule that I follow.  It's a public course, so they aren't going to try and set any mandatory procedure over such a trivial situation which would be impossible to enforce anyway.  Most casual players just roll the ball out of any holes they encounter without worrying about the formalities of dropping.

Side questions-

How often does your course aerate?

Do they aerate all fairways at once?

Do they remove the aeration plugs or leave them out?

They aerate twice a year.  The process of aerating the fairway and rough takes a couple of weeks to complete.  They immediately pick up and dispose of the plugs from the fairway, but they leave the ones in the rough to break down and return the nutrients to the soil.

[wils5150]

some courses will aerify one half of a fairway. reason being the members want to hit off of the good half until the other half heals. its all about keeping the members happy.

[TourSpoon]

Side questions-

How often does your course aerate?

Do they aerate all fairways at once?

Do they remove the aeration plugs or leave them out?

During the month of July, my home course was an utter disaster with the fairways getting punched and scored (front week 1, back week 2). Combine that with the abnormal amount of rain this year and it was a muddy chopped up challenge. I believe it was lift, clean and place for that entire month. My solution was to lift, clean and place my ball on the first tee of a different course until it improved the following month.

[iacas]

During the month of July, my home course was an utter disaster with the fairways getting punched and scored (front week 1, back week 2). Combine that with the abnormal amount of rain this year and it was a muddy chopped up challenge. I believe it was lift, clean and place for that entire month. My solution was to lift, clean and place my ball on the first tee of a different course until it improved the following month.

Which wouldn't even really be because of the aerification, but more to do with the conditions as a whole warranting lift, clean, and place.

[phan52]

We don't aerate all of our fairways every year. They rotate on a three year basis and we started aerating the rough in the last couple of years as well. There are 6 fairways that were aerated last week, and there is a sign on the first tee (and on the relative tees of the holes that are aerated) that we are playing lift, clean and place on only those fairways.

I always take advantage of getting my ball in my hands when it is allowed. We were playing a casual match the other day and, when we came to the first hole that was aerated, I noticed that one of my opponents had a decidedly bad lie in the middle of the fairway. I said nothing and watched him hit a knuckleball that landed well off target. When it was my partner's turn to hit I reminded him that he could lift, clean and place and I got the evil eye from my opponent. Hey dude, it's not like there wasn't signage everywhere.

[Strandly]

I'm not sure about any rules pertaining to this, I just roll my ball out of the hole and hit it.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TourSpoon

During the month of July, my home course was an utter disaster with the fairways getting punched and scored (front week 1, back week 2). Combine that with the abnormal amount of rain this year and it was a muddy chopped up challenge. I believe it was lift, clean and place for that entire month. My solution was to lift, clean and place my ball on the first tee of a different course until it improved the following month.

Which wouldn't even really be because of the aerification, but more to do with the conditions as a whole warranting lift, clean, and place.

Bingo!  If the overall conditions warrant such treatment, then there's no problem with the more drastic lift, clean and place.  If it's just to address the aeration, then using the preferred lies local rule is not the proper way to go.

[TourSpoon]

True, it was the perfect storm! All that rain really made it an ordeal. I have never seen anything quite like it.

[lumpuckeroo]

How often does your course aerate?  They didn't aerate last year but did this year

Do they aerate all fairways at once? Some fairways where, some weren't, I think is depends on the condition of the fairway

Do they remove the aeration plugs or leave them out?  I think it depends on the type of grass, I play on zoysia fairways, they didn't have plugs, they basically just punch holes