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Greens aerated in the begining of the season???


Chris08527
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Hello Everyone,

I live in NJ, so playing right now a lot of course just aerated the greens and while i understand the concept behind it, I was curious to everyone thoghts/feelings about it.  The course on played today the greens were almost "un-putt-able" if that is a word.  One put the ball literally jumped 3 inches in the area and other times looked almost like plinko on the price is right . . .lol. Just wondering how everyone else deals with this in the early rounds of the season.

Chris

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The course I work at is aerating their greens tomorrow, but the course I am a member of only aerates their greens at the end of August. I live in the Toronto area. I think it depends on the type of grass and soil.
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You just have  to deal with it.  It is must for course that really care about there greens and tee boxes.  I have a few courses that I play that do this both in the early spring and in the early fall. The course should have let you know on their site or when you called for a tee time. I know all the ones around me discount the rates by almost 50%. I know some if the very high end courses will do all the tee boxes. greens and fairway all at one time on 9 holes at a time. The will just note that you have to play the opposite 9 holes 2 times as the other 9 will be closed for 2 week.  I can deal with this if the rate is discounted good. It is nice to know then when you play the course in June then it will be in top notch shape.

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The problem with the courses I play on is I think the under seed the greens. They don't water them enough. So they end up taking twice as long to grow back. Its horrible because last year they did this later than usual in the golf season, and they were still bumpy in spring.

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
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Twice a year at most courses here. Problem is our handicap season usually coincides with punched greens. My home course is pretty bad right now still lots of sand on the surface.

Dave :-)

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Wow.... when I play aerated greens the putts are all super slow and they have less break, but they still roll pretty straight.  I wonder how much the variety of grass matters in that.

...and on topic: we aerate in Spring and again in Fall.  It's a Muni, and they charge $12/round during the week after they aerate the greens.

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Wow.... when I play aerated greens the putts are all super slow and they have less break, but they still roll pretty straight.  I wonder how much the variety of grass matters in that.

...and on topic: we aerate in Spring and again in Fall.  It's a Muni, and they charge $12/round during the week after they aerate the greens.

I think a lot depends on how they aerate their greens.  Obviously there are some people on this site who can expand, but my experience with aeration has ranged from no big deal with speed or line to nearly unplayable and miserable.  Western PA courses tend to follow the same schedule you outline here.

I always felt appreciation when a course warned me while booking about aeration.  I also think that a small discount for say, five days, would also be a good policy.  I like that your course does that.

"Witty golf quote."

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Wow.... when I play aerated greens the putts are all super slow and they have less break, but they still roll pretty straight.  I wonder how much the variety of grass matters in that. ...and on topic: we aerate in Spring and again in Fall.  It's a Muni, and they charge $12/round during the week after they aerate the greens.

The size of the holes and how well they were top dressed and swept or dragged in makes a lot of difference. With the big plug holes it always messed up my chipping at least as much as it did my putting. Any ball landing on the edge of a hole was likely to do anything, especially when they skimped on sand the the holes didn't get filled. I used to play with one guy that was a terrible putter. Seemed like after the greens were punched he putted twice as well. I used to tell him it was because when the greens were smooth he had a 100% chance of his off line putt missing the hole. With the greens punched he had a 50% chance that one of the holes was going to knock his ball the right direction and he would make the putt. ;-)

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The size of the holes and how well they were top dressed and swept or dragged in makes a lot of difference.

Thanks Aguirre and MS256 - that makes complete sense.  Now that I think about it, the holes at Westwood were relatively small diameter, and there was plenty of sand. I don't remember seeing any plugs on the greens either. Well swept and sanded.  Probably why things roll relatively straight there.

Your comment jogged my memory a bit - I remember playing another course that had been recently aerated, and it had massive plugs still lying on the green.  That *was* no fun - to the point of being blocked from memory, apparently!  ...thanks for the reminder... ;-)

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The problem with the courses I play on is I think the under seed the greens. They don't water them enough. So they end up taking twice as long to grow back. Its horrible because last year they did this later than usual in the golf season, and they were still bumpy in spring.


You must be referring Kittyhawk. I asked someone about that once. They said that watering them washes the sand away and they get more bumpy. It makes sense I guess. I don't like aeration as much as anyone, but it's necessary. for good greens.

- Shane

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You must be referring Kittyhawk. I asked someone about that once. They said that watering them washes the sand away and they get more bumpy. It makes sense I guess. I don't like aeration as much as anyone, but it's necessary. for good greens.

I was more talking about Community. They aerated them in November last year. WAY late in the season.

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

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I was more talking about Community. They aerated them in November last year. WAY late in the season.


Ah. They hire the same company and do it a week or so apart. KHawk is just as bad. Gem City is doing a deep tine aerification which is supposedly less damaging and recovers in a few days instead of weeks. I'll let you know how well it works.

- Shane

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depends on tine size 1/4,3/8.1/2 of the deep tine. i fill the holes up with sand although once watered the sand does settle down a bit . I also use a blower to remove any heavy pockets of sand and roll them a lot till they are filled in then topdress again. they usually put ok when I am done. I have had people comment that they roll better then the thought they would.

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The sand makes approach shots and pitches behave strange. I get familiar with the funky putting but watching balls skip across the green is frustrating. Have even played courses where the quality of the dressing varied front to back.

Dave :-)

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I've never had a course warn me about aerated greens and it's annoying as hell.  Occasionally I'll see a aeration warning on golfnow but it seems to me most of them prefer to keep it on the down low and take your money before you see what's going on. :censored:

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yeah, must be a NJ thing. ive played 4 courses so far in NJ this year and all were aerated. not fun at all. they should at least discount the round a few bucks or warn me before i book the teetime

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Our course does aeration both in the spring and in the fall.

During the aeration the whole course is closed for a minimum of 5 full days.

They use that time to do a bunch of other stuff like - rebuilding bunkers, re-leveling the green's collars, pruning or taking down trees, fixing the cart paths etc.

While I don't like having the course closed, I do appreciate the results.

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Note: This thread is 3508 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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