Despite the warm weather today, folks around here need to prep their lawns for winter.Golf courses are no exception.News 12's Erick Lind tells us why local courses are aerating the soil, and why it may work for your lawn.It's a sight most golfers don't like to see.A core aerator turning a healthy green, into a field of sand and dirt, but it's a process that greenskeepers have to be done.North Links Golf Course superintendent Eric Peters says, "Two of the biggest reasons are compaction relief and to reduce the thatch layer, especially on greens. Bent grass on a green creates a thatch layer that if you let it go and it gets too thick, the water can't absorb into the green."The process goes like this.First the machine punches holes in the green.After allowing time to dry, a grate is dragged to separate the sand and the thatch, so the sand can fill the holes back in and the tops can be blown off.Then a group of brooms sweep even more of the sand back to fill holes as much as possible to get rid of the bumps on the putting surface, but it doesn't heal instantly.Golfer Joanne Kvasnicka says, "It's the lumps, the divots, because your balls don't go. They go right or left. It's a challenge."Golf courses aren't the only ones that use aeration. People can us it for the residential property as well. That's when they have to turn to the experts.Spring Touch's Marv Kotke says, "Your grass is also connected by rhizomes, which are white veins, so every time you core the lawn you're also cutting those which gives you new sprouts and helps thicken the lawn also."Kottke says they are aerating around 100 lawns per week, but recommend getting the process done before mid-October.The help that aeration can give your lawn at home is a plus, and despite a tough couple of weeks on the course, it's all for the best.Then again, maybe it doesn't make it that tough.In Mankato, Erick Lind, News 12.