Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

If you look in the dictionary, it’s hard to find the word “aerification.”

Perhaps it’s a made-up word, but all golfers know what it means.

The golf course will be closed to play for about a week!

But what is aerification really?  To get more information, I looked up the process in materials provided by the United States Golf Association (USGA).  Without going into ultimate detail, here is what I found:

“The USGA’s Green Section has been helping golf courses deliver the best possible playing conditions for nearly 100 years.  USGA agronomists work with golf facilities across North America to help them create and maintain environmentally and economically sustainable golf courses that give you the best playing experience, even if you have to occasionally play on aerated putting greens. 

“Aerating putting greens might create a short-term disruption in your game, but the long-term benefits greatly outweigh the inconvenience. Here are five things every golfer to know:

1. We aerate to improve, not annoy

Putting greens receive more traffic than any other playing surface.  The aeration process helps relieve the compaction caused by all that traffic.  It also helps create a firm, smooth putting surface by controlling thatch and promoting healthy turf roots.

• Scratch the thatch

Thatch is a layer of old plant material that accumulates at the soil surface. If thatch on putting greens is not diluted by aeration and topdressing, it will act like a sponge, holding water near the surface.  Excessive thatch creates soft playing conditions, inconsistent green speeds ,and increases the risk of disease.

• Timing is everything

Do you ever wonder why aeration is commonly performed when putting greens are playing their best?  Aerating when grass is healthy and actively growing minimizes damage and allows for a quick return to optimal playing conditions.  Aerating at other times may be more convenient for the golf schedule, but it lengthens recovery times, increases the risk of an invasion of weeds and could cause lasting damage. 

It may seem like there are more holes than grass on the putting greens right after they’ve been aerated, but this is an illusion. Typically, aeration affects less than 10 percent of a putting surface.

• Sand is part of the plan

A heavy application of top-dressing following aeration may appear to make putting greens less playable.  However, filling aeration holes with sand actually helps create a smoother surface.  Sand also creates channels for water and air movement, dilutes thatch and helps putting greens recover from aeration more quickly.

Now, to this I add that on the course where I play most of my golf, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon, aerification does not occur only on the greens.  It is also done on the fairways and tee boxes.

Overall, the current process went well, except for the fact that some equipment broke, a fact-of-life for any greens superintendent.

I have seen all of this in my forty or so years of playing golf, so I am used to it.  And, this weekend, with my golf course open for the first time in a week, I may go play in the sandbox.