Turfgrass Aerification Under Excessively Hot and Humid Conditions
On August 1-3 2016, Edina Country Club aerified fairways and greens, despite excessivley hot and humid conditions. Here is the obvious outcome.
First, let's look at the weather conditions during the 3-day stretch.
| August 1, 2016 | August 2, 2016 | August 3, 2016 | |
| Conditions |  |
 |
 |
| Heat Index | 88° | 93° | 98° |
And now for the pictures.
14th Fairway | August 5, 2016 | +2 days
South-facing surfaces like the 14th fairway suffered badly. As you'll see later in the series, this was not healed by closing day, more than three months later.
10th Fairway | August 10, 2016 | +7 days
10th Approach | August 10, 2016 | +7 days
11th Approach | August 10, 2016 | +7 days
12th Fairway | August 10, 2016 | +7 days
This area was damaged so severely that the turf was replaced in the fall of 2016. Turf replacement was also required on the 16th fairway and behind the 18th green.
18th Green | August 10, 2016 | +7 days
Not south-facing, but still stressed out to the point of death. It also had to be replaced. Ironically, this is the shot used on the ECC web site's home page, in better days.
12th Fairway | August 26, 2016 | +23 days
23 days later the 12th fairway had patches of dirt. As noted, these areas needed turfgrass replacement in the fall of 2016.
14th Fairway | August 26, 2016 | +23 days
14th Fairway | November 10, 2016 | +100 days
100 days later the 14th fairway remained pockmarked. This only fully recovered in the summer of 2017, nearly a full year after the original damage was done.