Fall aeration marks the unofficial end of summer and the beginning of the fall season. Aeration is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, September 3 - Thursday September 5. The golf course will be open on Labor Day and then closed Tuesday - Thursday for this necessary agronomic process. The driving range will be closed until noon on Tuesday for maintenance. During this time, the new artificial tee surface will be installed on the concrete pad at the driving range. This will help limit wear and tear on the driving range during the winter months when the bermudagrass is dormant. It will also provide great playability when ground conditions are frozen or too wet.
Fall is easily my favorite time of year. Football season, great golfing weather and playoff baseball mark some of my favorite parts of fall; not to mention the upcoming holiday season. One of my absolute favorite parts is pulling cores out of the greens and beginning the great growing season that is the Fall in Richmond, Virginia. We have had a very successful season but the greens will still benefit from this necessary agronomic process.
We are not just aerating the greens. We learned some hard lessons last year regarding the drill and fill process in the fall. The drill and fill will still be used in the Spring but takes too long to recover in the fall. This year, we will be DryJecting the greens in two directions and pulling small cores to minimize disruption of play while maximizing the amount of new sand we put into the greens. This will improve surface firmness and water infiltration while removing and diluting thatch. The greens will be heavily topdressed and soil amendments will be added based on soil tests. The golf course will open back to normal play on Friday, September 6. Thank you for your patience during this time of improvement.
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| The DryJect's water-based injection system blasts aeration holes through the root zone to fracture the soil, while it’s patented vacuum technology simultaneously fills holes with sand. The benefits for our team include reduced clean up and stress while relieving compaction, diluting thatch and improving drainage. The playability of the greens will be much greater than last fall. |
Five years out from the renovation, the golf course is really maturing and developing into a great test of golf. We continue to face new challenges but relish the opportunity to keep finding new solutions. Over the next few months, the golf course will play very well and begin to slip back into dormancy. With the changing seasons and great weather, our team looks forward to seeing you on the golf course.
