If all goes well, we plan to complete the front nine, putting, and chipping greens today and the back nine, bentgrass nursery, and practice bunker greens on Wednesday.
Below are several videos of our team performing the many steps required for a greens aerification at Chantilly National. A new step, greens verticutting, has been implemented this year thanks to the addition of a new piece of equipment.
STEP 1 - Verticut - This machine basically cuts a vertical groove in the turf to remove thatch and extra leaf tissue. The thatch layer on your greens is very thin (which is good) so the grooves are very shallow but we still were able to remove quite a bit of material which will help us to keep them smooth and prevent other problems associated with a heavy thatch layer in the future.
STEP 2 - Once the verticut machine is finished, a large amount of debris is left behind. Step 2 is simply blowing as much of that material off of the green as possible. Some material will be left behind but this is only the first of 2 blows the greens will receive today.
STEP 3 - Once the verticut is done and the debris is blown away it is time for the aerifier. We are using 3/8" solid tines. The spacing is about 2.5" on center and we are penetrating about 4" deep.
STEP 4 & 5 - Once the holes have been punched, the green is rolled smooth. The aerifier tends to leave the green a little bumpy and the area directly beside the hole can be slightly "tufted", the roller smooths all of those imperfections out. Then a final blow is performed to get the last of the debris that was left by the verticut.
STEP 6 - Apply sand topdressing to fill the holes and smooth the greens surface.
STEP 7 - This machine, called the AirDrag, has several brushes and a large fan that blows down on to the turfgrass and distributes the sand evenly.
