Drill n Fill used to prevent winter closures this year
By Alistair
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Drill n Fill is a smart choice for slow-draining golf greens this autumn, as clubs look to minimise closures during the winter.
The legendary aerator is perfect for greens which suffer with puddling, compaction, thatch, black layer and poor grass growth. Older greens pushed up out of clay are the prime culprits with nowhere for the water to go once it puddles on the surface.
“Our front nine are old push-ups,” says Richard Tinklin, chair of greens at Sittingbourne and Milton Regis GC in Kent. “They have no rootzone to speak of and lots of thatch has built up over the years, leaving problems with surface water and poor grass growth.” The prestigious club, which runs county and PGA events, was established in 1929 – making the front nine greens almost a century old.
Last year he commissioned contractor Ecosol Turfcare’s Drill n Fill aeration system on a three-year rolling programme to alleviate the problems. In 2016 the front nine were done, followed by the whole course this year and nine greens will be done again next year.
By gently folding back the grass, the machine’s tungsten drills penetrate to a depth of 310mm, removing plugs of soil and replacing them with sand and, if desired, a soil amendment such as Sportslite. The resulting grid of ducts will work for many months, allowing water to percolate down to drainage layers, thatch and improving rootzone and thus grass growth. There is minimal impact on the green which can be back in play after about two hours.
Sittingbourne ordered the maximum depth, 310mm long drill, with a diameter of 20mm to penetrate the thatch. Ecosol used an 80:20 mix of kiln-dried sand and Sportslite through the drills. Sportslite is Ecosol’s own zeolitic mineral soil amendment, which with its high CEC can maximise the nitrogen and potassium in fertiliser, increase water retention, resist soil compaction and improve percolation down the drill ducts – all resulting in healthier grass growth.
Midway through the programme, Richard has already noticed an improvement. “We have had several good comments about the greens, minimal winter closures and I was very happy with the operation – it was all carried out smoothly.” Two of the old front nine greens, suffer really badly, he adds, “being particularly low lying and they will definitely benefit from being ‘Drill Filled’ again next year.” The back nine greens have more of a root zone, being only 23 years old, but have still benefitted from the deep aeration and addition of Sportslite.
Clubs which use this process in the autumn will usually find that their greens remain open throughout the wettest of winters.
This was the case at Dale Hill Golf Club in Wadhurst, East Sussex which has 36 greens, an old and a new course. Course manager, Neil Durrant, first used Drill n Fill last year and reports that it has “worked wonders.” He adds that the process was “a bit of a gamble” on his nine oldest greens, built in 1973 as clay push-ups, “because we didn’t even know if there was any kind of drainage layer for the water to percolate down into.”
Knowing that rebuilds were out of the question, he decided to give it a go. He used the maximum depth 310mm drills, backfilling with a mix of 80:20 sand to Sportslite. “Those greens were originally built with steep banks to hold water because they had no irrigation in those days and didn’t play in the winter,“ explains Neil. That didn’t suit the modern game and temporaries were often in use. These old greens were Drill n Filled twice and Neil’s head greenkeeper has found them to be the driest they ever have been in 30 years. “In fact they are better than the greens we had built in 1989! We are delighted. Our third green has a two- tier construction, with a bowl at the back and usually goes straight on temporaries in the winter. Last winter we used no temporaries, our gamble paid off!”
Neil is so impressed, he had Drill n Fill again this autumn on the 1989 greens which do have a drainage layer, so should show even quicker results. “It worked so well our plan is to have at least nine greens Drill n Filled every year until they are all good.”
On the continent, Dutch golf club Kennemer recently rebooked the process this autumn which meant three Ecosol Drill n Fill aerators crossed the channel. Kennemer’s course superintendent, Dick Vastenhouw, started using this aeration in 2010 and has found it has transformed his compacted and slow-to-drain greens. As well as The Netherlands, Ecosol is booked for a spring visit to two clubs in France.
Autumn and spring are the best times for Drill n Fill. Bookings for 2018 are being taken now.
Contact Ecosol Turfcare. Tel: 01666 861250; web: www.ecosolve.co.uk;
or email: info@ecosolve.co.uk for more information or to reserve your slot
By Alistair
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