I sure hope you have not seen this on your putting greens. These putting greens are a classic case of mismanagement. This particular golf course has had a checkered past. Built in the early 90's, went into bankruptcy soon after opening and several different owners since then and this is where the putting greens are today. A situation many of our golf courses are in today. However, I heard the statement "The membership does not like it when we aerify." Well who owns the course and who is going to pay when the proper cultural practices have not been done?
This did not happen overnight. It took years to reach the thickness of organic matter you see here. Some of the putting greens actually have a 3" layer. If you want to know what they feel like just jump on top of your bed and start strolling around.
What can be done? Moving may be the best option for some. All jokes aside you can aerify your way out of this. Everyone needs to be on board because that is going to be a long hard road. Be prepared to lose your entire summers of golf to poking holes, verti-cutting, and topdressing. With any luck you should start catching up in a few years. The quickest easiest route is to resurface. You can take a sod cutter and remove the organic layer. Bring the surface back up to grade with a mix that matches your present mix, till in, fumigate and plant with your choice of turf. I don't think this particular green is a good candidate for "NO TILL". The entire process can be done in as little as 2.5-3 weeks from start to planting. Then we have the grow-in that will usually take 6-8 weeks for coverage and an additional 4 weeks to really get them playing well. One golfing summer and you will have manageable putting greens for years to come.
Remember just because you have basically new putting greens it does not mean you can skip cultural practices. We still must aerify, verti-cut, and topdressing but just not as aggressive as you would to catch up with the beast to the right.
If your course is thinking about resurfacing their putting greens please give us a call. We will be glad to be of service to your club.