There were a few things we did this year to make it so successful. One was the type of sand we used. After speaking with the Superintendent at Crystal Springs Golf Course in Burlingame, we decided to go with a sand that goes through a kiln and comes to us as dry as desert sand. With the dry sand, we were then able to blow the sand into the holes versus using a metal drag mat. I saw the blower technique used at Stonebrae TPC and was amazed with the results. The advantage of the blower is that it doesn't create any physical damage which makes the healing time even quicker.
The other technique we do is to make the hole size smaller, but increase the spacing. Traditionally, greens were aerated with a .5" tine on 2"x2" spacing. We have increased our spacing to 1.5 x 2" and decreased the hole size to 3/8". The tighter spacing equals "better" roll and the smaller holes fill in quickly. If you do the math, every green on average has approximately 240,000 holes. After the math, I don't worry so much about the holes that don't get filled as the amount is minimal.
