4-28-2024

Good Morning,

Last Sunday we hosted our first golf event of the 2024 season. This was a four person best shot with 144 golfers participating. This is the first event in a long time where all 36 teams that registered actually showed up for the tournament. It was a little breezy but everyone had a great time golfing. It was a very successful day for the golf course.

We had windy conditions almost every day this past week. The nighttime temperatures were warmer which has helped the golf course “green up” considerably. Overall, the golf course is looking great right now. However, 1.35″ of rainfall has saturated the entire golf course. It is holding up well and I’m very happy with the current conditions.

 4-24-2024 #1.jpg

 #18 green 4-26-2024.jpg

This season we have started mowing our fairways back to the original pattern on each hole. Over the years some fairways have become wider but most fairways have narrowed. The fairways should be approximately ten feet from the yardage grasses marking each side of the fairways. There has been a little discoloration in some areas where we mowed the fairways farther out, but it is recovering very nicely. 

 #10 fairway 4-22-24.jpg

 #11 fairway 4-22-24.jpg

Our irrigation renovation has continued to be on hold due to the rainfall the past two weeks. We hope to start the work this coming week. Staff will be digging up existing heads around the greens as well as the valve boxes that control these irrigation heads. New heads will be installed around the greens and wire will be pulled from the valve boxes. The plan is to complete the project in a couple of weeks.

I will also be applying our pre emergent control for crabgrass in the fairways, tees, tee surrounds, and green surrounds. Some areas of the rough will also be treated to control the germination of crabgrass. This process will take me about twelve hours of spraying time. The wind conditions need to be below 10 mph to prevent drift. This is an annual treatment done every spring before soil temperatures rise to 50 degrees.

Herbicide applications will soon follow to help control the presence of dandelions, clover, and other weeds present on the course. These applications take approximately 36 hours to cover the entire golf course. Weather conditions must also be favorable to apply the herbicide. 

Golf leagues will be starting this coming week. Online tee times will not be available during league times. Please call the clubhouse to make a tee time on the opposite nine during league play. 

Please reach out to me with any questions or the need for more information. Enjoy the remainder of the rainy day weekend. Sunshine will be arriving soon.

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

4-21-2024

Good Morning,

This past week the weather was beautiful at the start of the week and slowly dropped in temperatures as the days passed. We did receive 2.5″ of rain at the golf course which helped provide precipitation for the golf course as well as the new trees we planted last season. The grass has really started to “green up” but still is a little slow growing due to soil temperatures.

 PG 4-20-2024.jpg

The greens were mowed a couple of times this past week. Tees, fairways and some of the rough were mowed once. We are still a few weeks away from our regular daily maintenance practices as far as mowing goes. It won’t be long and we will be back in the full swing of our daily mowing practices.

 #18 4-20-2024.jpg

The irrigation system was opened up for the season on Monday. Greens were irrigated for 10-15 minutes per station. I made a few small adjustments on several heads but overall there were no issues. We had planned to go through the rest of the system but rain showers put a halt to that plan. This upcoming week we will go through each station individually to document how well each station is functioning. 

Our 2023/24 Capital Improvement Plan involves an irrigation renovation to our greens. This will allow individual head control on every green. Also, we will have individual head control for our green surround on every hole. A major improvement with this renovation will be limited irrigation hitting our sand traps every night which will help keep the traps in better condition. 

Currently the contractor is planning to arrive at the golf course toward the end of this coming week. We will complete the renovation one hole at a time. During this process we ask the golfing publice to please refrain from completing the hole that is under renovation. Maintenance staff will assist this process by performing as much prep work as possible to each hole prior to the contractor.

Our greenside valve boxes will be dug up as will each irrigation head surrounding the green. New wire will be pulled from the valve box and connected to each new sprinkler. The exact time frame is not known until we complete a couple of holes and figure out the smoothest way to complete the process. I will make sure the updates are posted daily in the clubhouse.

Another high priority maintenance item is the application of a herbicide on all tees, fairways, green surrounds, and some of the rough to prevent the germination of crabgrass. This application needs to be completed once our soil temperatures remain consistently above 50 degrees. Spraying conditions need to be less than 10 mph winds. Once I start the application I will continue until all areas have been treated.

This morning we are hosting our first golf tournament of the season. We have 36 four person teams signed up for today. This is the maximum number of teams we are allowing for this event. There will be eight players on each tee box. The event starts at 11:00 AM with a shotgun start. Hopefully everything is completed by 5:30 PM. 

 #12 4-21-2024.jpg

Additional apparel has been added in the clubhouse for the 2024 season. We now have muni golf caps and light jackets added to our inventory. There is also the addition of new ball markers 1.5″ in diameter with a nickel finish. We are offering a wide variety of brand new Srixon and Callaway golf balls at different pricing. Golf shirts will be added in the near future.

 Muni Hats.jpg

 Muni Ball Marker.jpg

 Muni Light Jackets.jpg

Please reach out with any questions or inquiries for further information on a topic. Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

4-14-2024

Good Morning,

The maintenance staff has spent the past couple weeks working on course preparation. There were a couple of trees removed and lots of branches and small sticks cleaned up throughout. We also went through all the streams and waterways to remove garbage and other debris impeding the flow of water. 

Most of the amenity items have been placed on the golf course. Tee markers, garbage cans, and ball washers have been set on every tee. Water cooler stands have been placed on holes 3, 6, 8, 11, 13, and 16. Scorecard boxes are on 2 and 11 tees. Divot pails are also in place on the par three tee boxes. The OB stakes have been set in place around the exterior of the golf course. These stakes are inset from the property lines to give homeowners a little bigger buffer zone between the properties.

 #12 4-14-24.jpg

Fairways, tees, and greens have been mowed multiple times this spring. We are not mowing very frequently because the grass has not started growing right now. The night time temperatures need to be warmer to raise the soil temperature. Higher soil temperatures and precipitation will jump start growing conditions and create a lot more frequent mowing practices. Overall the golf course looks great!

 #12 4-14-24.jpg

 #15 4-14-24.jpg

Once the soil temperatures increase, I will be spraying the tees, fairways, green surrounds, and areas of the rough with a preemergent to control any presence of crabgrass on the course. This application needs to be followed with rainfall or irrigation to move the chemical to the top of the soil profile. 

The crabgrass plant is an annual that dies off in the fall, the seeds drop from the plant and wait for warm spring temperatures to germinate. The preemergent eliminates the possibility of the crabgrass seeds from germinating. 

Our east cart shed is the main area of storage space for our rental cart fleet. The shed is also filled with private cart storage in the front half of the building. We cleaned out the north half of this shed to allow better overnight parking of our rental carts. This will allow us to 32 rental carts in the shed without interfering with private carts each day. 

 Rental Cart Storage.jpg

I am very pleased to announce the new beverage cart has been delivered to The Muni. We purchased a used vehicle with a new cooler insert. This cart will allow us to sell dry goods along with beverages on the course. Thank you to everyone that donated to help make this addition to our golf course possible.

 2024 Beverage Cart.jpg

Special thanks to Morton Buildings for a ten year advertising agreement on the beverage cart. We will also be selling two year advertising spaces on the back of the cart at a cost of $500 for a two year space. We have a few businesses committed at this point. We are limiting these spaces so if you are interested in a sponsorship please contact me in the clubhouse.

 Golf cart sponsorship flyer.pdf

Our Virtual Membership Drive concludes this weekend. I will have the raffle winners drawn at the end of closing tonight. You still have time to purchase your 2024 membership today before closing. Stop in the clubhouse or visit our website to make your online payment. We have had a great response to this membership drive. Thank you golfers!

 Virtual Membership ’24.pdf

I was able to get away for a few days last week to spend some time at The Masters with my dad. It was an amazing experience and I was fortunate to spend it with him and six other golf course superintendents from South Dakota and Minnesota. I really thank the golf course staff for keeping operations smooth in the clubhouse and on the grounds while I was gone.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend. The weather is absolutely beautiful this morning at the golf course. Please reach out with questions or the need for more information on a topic. Have a great day!

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

3-31-2024

Good Morning,

The past week we pushed through the snow and rainfall to have a little bit of golf at the end of the week. We had close to 3″ of rain and about the same amount of snow. The precipitation was great for the golf course and it all soaked in pretty quickly. 

Thursday staff spent several hours moving drifts of snow from six of the greens in preparation for golf on Friday. The snow was mostly melted from the course late morning on Friday. Greens were mowed for the first time of the season late Friday morning. Even with the up and down weather conditions the golf course is in great shape as we finish the month of March.

 #8 Green 3-29-2024.jpg

 #12 Green 3-29-2024.jpg

 #9 Green 3-30-2024.jpg

I have been working on setting up an additional computer in the bar area so we have a second POS when times are busy. I will finish the setup process with Peak Software once the new cash drawer arrives next week. This will allow us to better serve our customers better during events and golf tournaments.

The golf course will be closed today and Monday due to cold temperatures and the high possibility of rain. We will be back open on Tuesday for what looks like a great week of golf. The first tournament of the season is still scheduled for Sunday, April 7, weather permitting.

Please visit the website www.spencermunigolf.com to pay your 2024 fees and complete your online tee times. Even if you only sign on the website to create your profile, it will help us with the payment process in the clubhouse. The annual Virtual Membership Drive is still on for two more weeks

 Virtual Membership ’24.pdf

Enjoy your Easter Sunday with family and friends. Time with family and friends is most important whether it’s at the golf course or any other free time you have during your day. Take care!

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

3-24-2024

Good Morning, 

The weather has changed and reminded us Winter might not quite be over yet. With the uncertain snow amounts in the forecast I felt it was best to spray the greens with a fungicide. This treatment protects the bentgrass greens from the threat of “snow mold.” This is a fungus that develops underneath the snow cover when temperatures rise creating a perfect environment for this beast. Below is a picture of this fungus that developed off the collar in an untreated area:

 Snow Mold 2019.JPG

The greens are sprayed for a final time heading into the winter months to protect the turf from this fungus once Spring starts to arrive. The application is generally effective for 100 days. The application I sprayed on Thursday morning will give us protection from any further snow possibilities until Mother Nature brings back the golf weather.

 3-21-24 snow mold app.jpg

Last fall we repaired several tiles in the retention pond area behind #12 green. These tiles were damaged and had a lot of tree roots plugging the outlets. This past week we removed two large willow trees in this area. The stumps still need to be removed and treated so we don’t get any return growth from these trees. This should help secure the integrity of these tiles moving forward.

 #12 retention pond clean up.jpg

 #12 retention pond clean up (2).jpg

The golf course will remain closed until we can evaluate conditions late next week. Overall, the condition of the course is excellent right now. There has been no damage from all of the golf traffic so far this month. We need to continue being cautious moving forward to ensure there is no damage moving forward. It’s not worth causing turf damage in the month of March. Hopefully we will continue to have nice days to finish off this month.

 Practice Green 3-20-24.jpg

While the golf course is closed and the cold temperatures persist, please take some time to visit our new mobile friendly website www.spencermunigolf.com and create your profile for the 2024 season. You can reserve online tee times and also pay your 2024 fees by visiting the website. Paying your fees now secures the current pricing and also registers you for the Virtual Membership Drive.

 Virtual Membership ’24.pdf

I will be out of the office for several days this upcoming week. Please reach out if you have any questions or would like further information on a topic. Stay warm and keep thinking about golf weather. 

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

3-17-2024

Good Morning,

This past week we completed our first mowing of the 2024 golf season. The tees and fairways were mowed on Monday and Tuesday. Lots of dormant grass was removed with a dense green grass present underneath. The soil still had plenty of surface moisture creating a lot of soil buildup on the rollers and inside the reels. The fairways and tees looked great upon the completion of mowing.

 3-15-24 Hole #8.jpg

 3-14-24 Hole #18.jpg

The bentgrass greens will not be mowed until colder night time temperatures are no longer a concern. I don’t want to remove the dormant grass tissue which is providing a source of insulation to the turf plant. Bentgrass is not nearly as stress tolerant as bluegrass especially at a mowing height of 1/8 of an inch. Mowing the greens will leave the plant unprotected to the elements and I don’t want to take a chance of any stress or damage to our greens. They are still rolling pretty nice with minimal maintenance being done so far this year.

 3-15-24 Hole #8.jpg

I’m extremely happy with the condition of the golf course, especially considering the time of the season. I have never seen it in better condition for the middle of March. We will move forward with open golf on the nice days and the course will be closed on the colder days. Please remember the weather can change on a daily basis. Technically, it’s not even golf season yet and there is no need to cause damage to the course before the actual playing season begins.

 3-12-24 view to the east.jpg

Our maintenance practices have consisted of mowing fairways, changing cups several times, raking and repairing sand traps multiple times, completing daily set up each morning, and placing the OB stakes along the property lines of the course. No amenity items have been placed on the golf course yet. Tee markers, water coolers, ball washers, etc will be placed on the course once temperatures are no longer a concern at night. Also, by not placing tee markers it eliminates high traffic in a small space on each tee. Golfers are teeing off from all different areas and it’s barely noticeable that so much golf has been played.

The golf course received a little more than .25″ of rainfall on Wednesday night. We closed the golf course on Thursday to make sure all of the precipitation soaked into the ground and there was no damage from golf carts on the course following the storm. The golf course started turning a darker shade of green almost immediately the following morning. Our moisture levels are more than adequate at this time. It was a relief to not start up the irrigation system at this time of year.

 3-15-24 Hole #4.jpg

I have been working the majority of my time in the clubhouse seven days of the week. Quite a few seasonal employees have started working and training on the new software. Everyone is catching on quickly and the transition is moving in the right direction. I will continue to bring part time staff back on board and work through the training with them individually.

The golf course is currently running our 2024 Virtual Membership Drive. This is an opportunity for our golfers to pay their 2024 fees prior to April 13 which includes them in the raffle drawing for multiple gift certificates to The Muni. Our mobile friendly website allows customers to make those payments online from the comfort of their own home. We are also taking payment in the clubhouse or at city hall. Please visit the website, complete your profile, and pay your fees online if possible. Creating the online profile saves us a lot of time during check in at the clubhouse.

 Spencer Muni Golf Course Single.pdf

The golf course opening allowed golfers to experience the earliest start in the history of the golf course. It has provided us with revenue that was definitely not planned for this budget season. It has also created payroll expenses that were not planned, but the plus side far exceeds the expense side. We have also been able to meet so many new faces coming to The Muni for their first time.

The golf course will be closed today and Monday due to the cold temperatures. The weather looks up and down moving forward for the next week. The golf course availability will be posted on Facebook. If online tee times are not available on the website for that date, then we are closed due to weather. We will continue to be open when the weather is nice.

Please reach out if you have questions or would like additional information from me. Enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful outdoor weather. 

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

3-10-2024

Good Morning,

Another week is winding down at the golf course. We started the season with the earliest opening date in The Muni history. It has continued to be busy on the days the golf course is open. The online tee times are starting to fill up for the next few days. Beautiful golf weather is in the forecast.

 #18 3-10-2024.jpg

We continue to get a lot of people visiting our new mobile friendly website. It allows the golfer to create a profile, make an online tee time, and pay 2024 fees with the click of a button. If you are able to create your online profile prior to coming in to the clubhouse it helps check in go a little quicker.

 New Website.jpg

Our annual Virtual Membership Drive is underway and will continue until the April 13 deadline. Raffle winners will be drawn and announced on April 14. Anyone who has paid their 2024 season pass prior to the deadline will be eligible to win one of our raffle gift certificates.

 Virtual Membership ’24.pdf

Close to fifty new trees were planted last fall plus the nursery stock to the south of #10 green. Each tree was watered this past week due to the dry conditions. The majority of trees are starting to bud-break earlier than normal with the unseasonable weather. I will continue to monitor our tree maintenance moving forward.

On Thursday the pumphouse was put back together in preparation for spring start up. This includes assembling plumbing and valves for all three pumps. These three pumps pull over 800 gallons per minute of irrigation water through two six inch intakes. These two intakes are placed in the wet well which is connected to the irrigation pond. It all ties together and results in over 400,000 gallons of water delivered to the course overnight.

The golf course is doing pretty well as far as moisture in the golf greens. I will more than likely need to start irrigating the greens and tees on the golf course if there is  no precipitation. It’s kind of a scary situation to comprehend the fact that irrigation will start earlier than normal but at least the frost level is considerably low.

Our new beverage cart campaign still continues. I have been doing a lot of research and spoke with quite a few dealers online. We are looking at used beverage carts that will meet our needs for the golf course. The plan is to make the purchase prior to the start of our golf leagues. We appreciate the support we have received through donations to date.

Please reach out to me with any questions or additional clarification on a topic. Enjoy the great weather and maybe I will see you at The Muni soon…

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

3-3-2024

Good Morning,

Our driving range opened last week and we had a lot of golfers take advantage of the warm February weather. This led to a lot of phone calls and text messages wondering about the opening date for the golf course. Every year I open the golf course as soon as the course is ready for cart traffic. To my own surprise we finally reached that point this past week.

 Driving Range 2-24-24.jpg

We spent the majority of the week preparing the golf course for opening. There has not been any mowing completed but quite a bit of prep work to clean up the golf course. Sand traps were repaired and raked to normal standards. There are no tee markers or other amenity items on the golf course other than trash cans, hand rakes, and flagsticks. The golf course is in great shape considering the time of the year. 

The golf course opened on Saturday morning to the delight of a lot of golfers. There were tee times from 9:44 until 3:00 with no openings. We ran out of rental carts at 1:00. Some of our guests had to wait for 15-30 minutes for carts to come in off the course. Most everyone was understanding of the high volume of golfers and the unfortunate wait time for carts. It was a wonderful opening day, setting a new record for earliest opening date. The previous date was March 12.

 3-2-24 #9.jpg

 3-2-24 #18.jpg

 3-2-24 closing.jpg

The golf course held up very well for so much traffic on the first day of the season. We will be open today and close tomorrow so we can evaluate the golf course conditions. The warm temperatures and high winds have dried everything out rather quickly. Opening the irrigation system will be a strong possibility as we move forward

 3-3-24 #9.jpg

 3-3-24 Range.jpg

Our new software has been performing quite well. I continue to find little glitches here and there and make some adjustments. Online tee times went great yesterday. We had the majority of our tee times done online, several tee times were over the phone, and a fair amount were walk-in golfers.

 New Website.jpg

Golfers have been fairly steady this morning whether it be driving range or tee times. The afternoon online tee times are filled for about a two hour span. I’m going to wrap up this update and get back to the front desk. If you have any questions or comments please reach out to me! Enjoy the day and remember to “swing easy when it’s breezy….”

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

2-25-24

Good Morning,

The driving range opened for business on Saturday morning. There were golfers on the tee shortly after 10:00 AM. The practice facility was busy most of the day until it closed at 5:00 PM so we could pick up the range balls, clean them, and have our range ball inventory ready to go for this morning.
 Driving Range 2-24-24.jpg
 2-24-24 end of day.jpg

Having the driving range open has provided myself and the staff a great opportunity to learn the new software and make notes of areas we need to tweak a few things. There are a couple of issues with the addition of tax when multiple baskets of range balls are purchased at once. We will continue to work through and hopefully correct these areas. Overall, the POS is functioning quite nicely.

The golf course is looking very nice for this time of the year. The turfgrass throughout the golf course came through the winter in good condition up to this point. The frost level is still very close to the surface on the greens. The cold night time temperatures are keeping the frost present in the greens. The golf course will not open until the frost drops below a depth of 12 inches.
 2-25-24.jpg

I received the link to the new website through Emagine Marketing. It looks awesome and will be great to have it in a mobile friendly format. I meet with them on Monday to make a few changes. The current plan is to have the new website functional and available to the world wide web by the end of the day Wednesday.

A safety inspection of the maintenance facility and shop was completed this past Thursday by safety coordinator, Michael Raner. The facility passed the inspection with flying colors. Nothing was noted as an area of concern. I’m proud of our staff for continuing to take a lot of pride in the golf course which leads to our facilities being maintained at a high level as well as the grounds.

The Muni has started their annual virtual membership drive. Any golfer purchasing their 2024 season pass prior to the April 13 deadline will be eligible for the possibility of one $100 gift certificate or a handful of individual $50 gift certificates. All gift certificates are from Spencer Municipal Golf Course.
 Virtual Membership ’24.pdf

The Golf Board continues to work on the 2024 Beverage Cart Fundraiser. We have increased our labor budget for the 2024 golf season to accommodate for additional part time staff to operate the beverage cart during the golf season. This will allow us to provide drinks, beverages, and snacks to our golfers enjoying a round at The Muni.
 Beverage Cart Fundraiser

The clubhouse is open today. The driving range is available until 5:00 PM. Enjoy the remainder of the beautiful weekend. Reach out to me with questions or the need for additional information.

Brian C Mohr
Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer
101 W 5th Street
Spencer Municipal Golf Course
Spencer, Iowa 51301
712-260-5370
www.spencermunigolf.com

2-18-2024

Good Morning,

The weather continues to be quite abnormal and leaves us all anxious for spring to arrive. The start of the golf season is always on everyone’s mind that owns a set of golf clubs. Weather patterns definitely play the biggest part in that each year. Here are a couple photos from the same date in 2021 and 2022 showing the difference Mother Nature can make with springtime weather changes:

 4-10-21.jpg

 4-10-22.jpg

And another picture from early April in 2023 from the first hole:

 4-1-23 #1.jpg

This past week I have continued to work with the software provider with the set up, online options, and further training in the clubhouse. The new website has also progressed very nicely at Emagine Marketing. I will be working with both companies, on Monday, to get the online portion activated onto the new website. I hope everything goes smoothly and we are able to launch the new website by the end of the week.

There was a lengthy training session with the new clubhouse software to set up the online options and better understand the online tee time process. My initial hope was the online tee time option would be controlled for use only by our golfers who purchase a season pass. This software does not have the ability to target a specific option for online tee times. It will definitely be a learning curve for staff and our customers. I have been working through scenarios trying to plan ahead for any situation that might arise once we are in operation.

The Muni will be launching our annual Virtual Membership Drive once the new website is operational with all the online payment options. Individuals paying their 2024 season passes prior to April 14 will be entered into the gift certificate drawings. The top prize will be a $100 gift certificate to the golf course. There will also be five additional $50 gift certificate winners. Further details will be provided in the near future.

The Capital Improvement Plan continues to be a high priority with city staff and the committee. We participated in several meetings as we continue to move forward with these items for the 2024/25 fiscal period. This process should be completed in the next few weeks. 

Lastly, I have been working on quite a few equipment repairs. The majority of the equipment has been serviced and repaired in preparation for the upcoming golf season. I have made the necessary repairs to make several older pieces of equipment operational which will help us out if we are behind schedule on some of our maintenance practices. 

It looks like temperatures are starting to move back up into the “far from normal” winter temperatures in Iowa. I guess we should enjoy whatever break we can get in the weather. Enjoy the sunshine today and please reach out with any questions.

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com