Hollow-tine aerification, coring, core aeration, whatever you call it, removes organic matter from the soil.
But if you measure the soil organic matter before pulling any cores, and then measure again after the cores are removed, the soil organic matter % will be exactly the same.
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
That’s a generalization of Goodhart’s law. I’m an advocate of measuring some surface performance, plant, and soil parameters.
A late July solid-tine spiking treatment of a creeping bentgrass green in Hokkaido, Japan. How’s this for a lede?
“Hollow-tine coring and solid-tine spiking practices may not alleviate creeping bentgrass summer decline.
There was an article on the Golf Course Industry website about a course that hasn’t core aerified putting greens since the course opened 12 years ago. It’s a short article—466 words.
On a recent trip to Japan, I’d wanted to get a new video of a core sweeper in operation. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for the greenkeeper, who had a laugh about this, the sweepers clean the greens so fast that by the time I arrived there were no more cores to sweep.