Columnist Peter Benton: Don’t get frustrated by aerification closures

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2003 | 8:38 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

As most area golfers are acutely aware, many local courses are in the process of aerating, thatching, overseeding and what-all, with the consequence being that some layouts have only nine holes open, and others are completely closed.

This is an annual process and the secret here is not to become too frustrated, as the inconvenience lasts, at most, only about three weeks. Let's face it, all the courses being worked on will be far better than ever for our fall and winter seasons, so not only do the layouts benefit from their facelift, we golfers benefit also.

Just to enlighten those who are not sure what is happening and to explain the reasons for both aerification and overseeding, the following may be of interest:

Aerification, one of the many preventive maintenance programs that are so necessary to the health of golf courses, invariably takes place in late summer and approximately six weeks before overseeding begins.

Three very important objectives are achieved: Soil compaction is relieved, thatch is reduced and/or prevented and the soil mixture around the highest part of the roots improves. If this process is not attended to, particularly on the greens, the roots decline and the turf becomes increasingly weaker and thus susceptible to disease.

Because Bermuda grass becomes dormant with the arrival of cooler weather, overseeding with rye (which thrives in colder conditions,) must be completed by late October as that is when Las Vegas usually experiences its first frost of the season.

Here in town, 90 percent of our layouts begin their overseeding process following Labor Day because it is then that the days, and especially the evenings, usually begin cooling down.

Overseeding basically consists of three major steps:

The seeding rate of this perennial rye grass (which is the most widely used for overseeding in the southwest section of the country) varies between 400-800 pounds per acre. Depending on the quality of seed purchased, the price of this expensive commodity varies between 75 cents and $1 per pound.

The reason so many of our layouts close for this mandatory program is because after seeding, the soil must be kept constantly moist as seed takes anywhere from 5-10 days to germinate. Approximately 12 days later mowers will start cutting the new fairways, and shortly after that courses re-open for play.

In the new year, once the soil temperature reaches a consistent 55 degrees the Bermuda grass begins to grow back, (this transition period happens through April, May and June,) when the rye is basically choked out, as Bermuda is a far more aggressive grass.

Thus the cycle has been completed.