All images for this article were provided by Jim Pavonetti.
Fairview Country Club is a private, 18-hole golf facility located in Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles outside of New York City. I have been the superintendent here for 18 years and have been in the golf course maintenance business for 38 years. At Fairview, we traditionally aerated our modified sand and soil Poa annua putting greens in the third week of August. This was done for many years, going back even before my time. Back then, a large number of our members typically went away on vacation during the last two weeks in August, leaving a quiet course with little play. Once they came back for one last big summer weekend over Labor Day, the greens were pretty much healed from aeration and everyone was happy. As time went on, the membership changed and so did their schedules. What was once a quiet second half of August became a very busy and important part of the golf season. Even our club championship schedule changed to late August during this time and the club was looking to host more outside events on Mondays in late summer and fall.
We wanted to shift our aeration schedule to fall and spring to accommodate the new golf priorities, but September and October were used for a lot of outside golf events so those months were not available. We moved to aerating in November and March, and that schedule worked great for close to 10 years. It took some time in the spring for the greens to recover from March aeration, but the golfers wouldn’t have to worry about aeration again until late fall when the season was winding down.
As a few more years went by, the club continued to grow and change and spring golf became increasingly popular. April used to be a quiet month and you wouldn’t see many golfers on the course until Mother’s Day. But April rounds began to increase, and so did expectations for the quality of the golf course coming out of the winter. Unfortunately, we had very cold and dry springs in 2022 and 2023. The aeration holes from March, and even November, just would not heal. Weeks went by. Fertilizer applications were made. Heavy rolling was performed. Nothing seemed to work or at least work fast enough. Members grew impatient, especially once this happened a second time in two years!
One thing that I observed during these difficult springs was that the few greens we covered during the winter back then had no visible holes from the fall aeration at all. Only the spring holes were visible, and they were healing faster on the greens that had been covered because they were more actively growing early in the spring after being covered all winter.
After two years of consecutive slow starts, rather than aerating in March and November, we switched all our aeration work to the fall. No aeration procedures were reduced or eliminated though. We do a double drill-and-fill instead of two single drillings, and we core aerate the greens twice in November with 0.5-inch hollow tines at 1.5-inch spacing instead of once in fall and once in spring. After all the holes are filled with sand and we have a nice coating of topdressing on the surfaces, we cover the greens with permeable covers for the winter just before the soil freezes. Come spring, we remove the covers and enjoy smooth, healthy greens from day one. Not every course can do this, but it’s certainly an approach worth considering if you can close the primary greens through the winter. We put a flag out in the approach as a target for those that walk a few holes on nice winter days, which seems to keep the winter players happy.
Based on our organic matter testing, we strive to aerate 20% of our putting surface area per year. Does it make a difference if you do it all at once or multiple times throughout the year to add up to the 20%? I have not seen any signs of decline from executing all our aeration practices at once. In fact, we have had nothing but really great years since switching to this schedule and the members are very happy. We conduct two loss-on-ignition putting green organic matter tests each year in May and October and our reductions in organic matter have continued at the same rate they did before moving all the cultivation to November.
I also love the idea of having more aeration holes open going into the winter to help with water infiltration and reducing the risk of crown hydration. When I was a superintendent in upstate New York, I would deep-tine the greens in fall and leave the holes open all winter to reduce the risk of winter injury. This was a tip received from two highly regarded superintendents in that area, Bill Stevens and Peter Salinetti, and it worked great.
There are pros and cons to everything in life, and doing all your putting green aeration in the fall is no different. Most courses’ labor force is typically less in the fall than in the middle of the golf season. This is our situation as well, so we hire outside help to assist the drill-and-fill contractor and to help our staff with the core aeration process that follows. Honestly, this has worked out so well that I would add extra outside help even if I had my whole staff on board. The help is great, but it is an additional expense that comes with our late-fall aeration.
As we look to fill aeration holes with sand in the fall, I avoid any type of dragging. I am trying to minimize any additional stress on the plants at this time of the year. I want the greens to go into the winter healthy and hardened off without trying to heal from abrasions. We use backpack blowers to move the sand into the holes and I find this fills the holes more effectively than dragging anyway. Once this is completed, we will spray one last time with a tank mix of fungicide and ethephon (Proxy) and put sand out with walking spreaders every week until we run out of sand, money or decent weather – whichever comes first. I don’t even want to drive on the greens with the larger topdresser once all the aeration holes are made. I want every hole to still be perfectly round, with sand right to the top.
All 18 greens are covered for the winter as part of our current program, plus two practice greens and the driving range tee. The covers cost money to buy, install, manage through the winter, and remove in the spring. We use permeable covers and secure them using railroad spikes with large washers on the outside borders. On the inside seams, we use normal sod staples. This works out well, and we usually go through the whole winter without a cover blowing off. Some courses may opt to use impermeable covers. That depends on what you are protecting the greens from and what you are trying to accomplish. For us, the permeable covers do an excellent job protecting the greens from windburn. They also do a good job mitigating severe temperature fluctuations. And ultimately, they get things going for us in the spring fast enough to have great putting surfaces by the time members start looking to play.
Covers must be managed, though. It’s not a “set it and forget it” situation. If the winter is warm, the greens have to be checked to make sure they are not growing too high. They should also be checked for disease. For the last few years, we have removed covers at least once during winter to mow and spray. One year we removed them twice. It is a pain, but good greens in April come with a price. When the long-term forecast shows that nighttime temperatures will stay well above freezing, we remove the covers for the season but keep them bundled up behind each green complex for a few weeks just in case the forecast drastically changes back to cold.
Improving growing environments is also extremely helpful to promote spring recovery from fall aeration – and it reduces the risk of winter injury. Sunlight during the lower-light times of year is at a premium. If there are trees impacting winter sunlight and you can get them removed, do it.
When we come out of winter after completing four aerations in November and covering the greens around the first week of December, the only aeration holes visible are very small white dots from the drill and fill. Ball roll is incredibly good and by the second or third week of April everything is fully healed. From our observations, most of the aeration recovery doesn’t really get started until the end of February or the beginning of March. March has the same amount of sunlight and same sun angle as the month of September, so covers help keep that soil temperature up enough to get the holes to close. Recovery is all about soil temperature. Without the soil temperatures, very little progress is made.
In summary, shifting all aeration practices to the fall and using winter covers to promote recovery has proven to be a game changer at Fairview Country Club. By completing all cultivation before winter and protecting the greens with permeable covers, the course has consistently delivered high-quality putting surfaces from the very start of the spring season, meeting the expectations of a membership that is increasingly active early in the year. While this approach requires strategic planning, additional fall labor, and a budget for cover purchasing and maintenance, the payoff has been well worth it. We have enjoyed improved organic matter management, fewer disruptions during our peak seasons and healthier greens overall. Like any strategy, it’s not without trade-offs, but for courses with a similar climate and golf schedule, the benefits of fall-only aeration combined with proper winter management are certainly worth considering.