2025 Fairway Aeration & Expansion of Our Santa Anna

In our previous Granite Bay Course Update we outlined our planned Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda expansion and the steps we took to prepare areas for re-grassing with aeration cores. This past week beginning Monday July 7th we were closed for fairway aeration in which we utilized the extracted cores from the fairway aeration process for the re-grassing of the areas we prepared the preceding weeks. 

This was the first time we endeavored to expand hybrid bermuda in this fashion and we learned quite a bit from the experience. Below are pictures of the process for those who are interested.

Step one in fairway aeration is all sprinkler heads, valve boxes & yardage markers have to be flagged so aerifyer operators can lift and avoid these obstacles while aerifying. 

Second step for us is to aerate around these sprinkle heads creating a buffer zone for the following aerifyer.

Third step is we aerify up the fairway now that we can navigate around sprinkler heads easier having aerated around the sprinkler heads ahead of this aerator.

The fourth step is to collect cores and place them in the prepared areas that we described in our last course update. This is the step that we knew the least about going into expanding the Santa Anna. After some experimentation with other pieces of equipment and methods, we settled on careful removal of the extracted fairway cores using our front end loader to push, pick-up and move to the expansion areas. This was a relief as it is productive of a process as there is, and we ended up using substantially more cores then we initially thought. The areas stripped and prepared on #9 & #8 measured approximately 12,000 square feet and they took all of the cores generated on hole #8 & #9. We wanted to keep the cores intact for a better end result so using the loader turned out to be a BMP versus sweeping up the cores with our giant sweeper which would have broken these cores up.

Step five, move the cores to the prepared areas.

Step six was to rake the cores onto the prepared area.

Here is the finished product after raking.

Step seven after we have removed cores for re-grassing expanded areas we drag remaining cores for removal.

Step eight is to remove the cores with sweepers and blowers.

Step nine is to mow ahead of  sand topdressing

Step ten is to sand topdress the aerified fairways.

Sand topdressing is the process that is the most time consuming of all of the fairway aeration processes. This year in  31/2 days we moved 700 tons of sand, covering 30 acres of fairways, 4 yards at a time from three strategic locations

2024 picture of the topdressor working in front of #4 green.

The area above circled in green is another 2024 picture showing one 4 yard load spread out on #16 fairway. 

Enrique Reyes Hureta, the man, the myth, the legend, the one behind the spreading all of that sand in 3-1/2 days. We couldn't do it without him

The last step in the fairway aeration processes brushing in the sand. We brush all fairways twice during the process. 

What To Expect When You Return To The Club Saturday 7/14/25

When you return Saturday you will encounter freshly aerated fairways with open holes and remnants of topdressing sand. Open holes can dry the surface out so the fairways could be a bit wet in areas initially. There will be sand present so if you do not want to scratch you irons, you might consider a using older irons until the sand disperses.

Here is what the freshly aerified  fairways will look like from afar.

And a closer look you will see aerification holes which will be gone by the end of next week

You will also notice all of the areas that we put the aeration cores into having some temporary soaker sprinklers installed on the surface. The trick to getting these cores established is to keep them moist during the initial rooting stage and this temporary soaker irrigation will help us achieve just that. The re-grassed area doesn't look like much now, but by the end of next week we will see green grass getting started. By the end of July we hope to see substantial coverage over the area and by the end of August we hope to have full coverage.

More to come on our Santa Anna Expansion. Thanks as always for your support of our efforts on the course.