One of the most important practices a golf course superintendent uses to maintain great putting surfaces is hollow tine aerification, a process in which holes are punched in the greens, the cores are removed and the holes are filled with sand. In Las Vegas, this process is generally performed in late spring and again in the fall at during overseed.Most golfers dislike this procedure because they see superintendents take smooth, pretty greens and turn them ugly and bumpy for a short period of time. What most golfers don’t understand is that aerification is one of the most important ways to keep greens rolling perfectly throughout the year. In fact, failure to perform regular aerification severely compromises the long term health of the greens and eventually requires that they be entirely rebuilt.
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