“I sprayed a tank-mix with Oasys Ultra and Thatch Relief and within about a week and a half, two weeks, I noticed a huge difference. It was like being on a different planet! The feel of the surface when you walked on it, to the receptivity of the shot, to the speed of the greens. The speeds went up probably 2 ½ to 3 ½ feet, we couldn’t even believe the response we got.”
- Chris Black, PGA pro and owner/operator at Hickory Grove Golf Course in Oelwein Iowa.
“I’m always looking for new ways to improve our turf and playing surfaces for our members and guests. We came across Liquid Aeration from Soil Tech and I thought, this could be a great program for us. One of the things that I dislike the most is aerifying. I think it hurts our revenue, members don’t like it, guests don’t like it, and certainly our staff doesn’t like it, it adds to our workload. It takes away time, money, things like that” says Chris.
Continuing, he states that, “These greens were built in 1967. They’re push-up style greens, native soil with a little bit of poa annua grass in there with mostly bentgrass. They just love this stuff! In a very practical sense, it would cost us $100-$200 per green just to aerify, clean it up and do all that extra work. The Liquid Aeration products that I put out cost about $160 worth of product (total for all the greens), and we didn’t have any of that extra work. It just makes economic sense. The members like it, our guests love it, it just really helped us a lot. I really appreciate these products.”
Describing the process, Chris continues, “What I did was, I applied the Oasys Ultra and the Thatch Relief and I kinda went outside the box with my application rate. I was very aggressive because I wanted to really get after it. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t hurt anything.”
One of the other key personnel at Hickory Grove Golf is Mike Lewis. Mike adds, “I’m the head golf coach at Upper Iowa University and I’m also a co-owner here at Hickory Grove. I’ve been the golf coach for about 9 years, been involved with this golf course for about 15 years now.”
Mike follows up on Chris’ comments, “After the application of the Liquid Aeration products, about a week and a half later, myself and my players saw an increase in green speeds which we had been looking for. To prepare our student-athletes for competition, such as going to famed golf courses like Cog Hill over in Chicago, we needed to get the greens speeds up. So that will help the players when they travel to other courses. Also, after the applications of the products, that thatch layer basically was gone. We’re seeing the ball react more like what we are used to (at other courses), which is a great thing to see for my players and for myself, playing wise.”
To wrap up, Chris offers the following, “I would like to strongly suggest that all the G.M.’s, P.G.A. professionals, and golf course superintendents, give this Liquid Aeration program a try. You will not be disappointed. It’s not a huge price, but you’ll save a ton. So good luck in your future, give it a shot.”