Happy New Year to everyone. I always get excited this time of year. We have less than 12 weeks to the possible opening of the golf course. I love the mid March opening dates. It really sets the tone for a great golf season. I have updated the 2017 event schedule on our website. Previous events have the option to reserve the same date the following year. We also have open golf during many of these events.
I also completed my continued education training for the aquatic portion of my pesticide license. The continued education for the turfgrass and ornamental section of my license was completed mid December. This annual training is necessary to maintain my license to apply these applications to the golf course throughout the season.
Recently, I was able to purchase a large inventory of range balls. These balls will last us for quite a few years and will also allow me to sell some to other courses. Each year the range balls are sorted by quality, to make sure we have high quality practice balls. I completed this process and removed all the non range golf balls. They were sorted, by quality, and the damaged balls were tossed in the garbage.
Last year, I started selling these used golf balls in the clubhouse. Almost new golf balls were a pretty big hit. We sold over 200 of them after starting mid to late season. This year we will be selling the dollar balls along with $.50 golf balls. I have almost 600 used balls to sell in the $.50 category. Hopefully these will also be a hit and bring the golf course additional revenues at no expense.
The Park Department has agreed to transfer a used mower to the golf course. This mower was going to be traded for a new unit in their department but will now help us better manage our practices. We have started mowing the park areas, along with Public Works areas, surrounding the golf course property. This machine will make this process more efficient for us moving forward.
I was able to service this John Deere 1600 WAM this past week. I changed oils and filters, checked all the hoses, removed some dents, and cleaned everything under the frame. There were also repairs made to the throttle cable, parking brake, and some other small issues. I also sharpened the blades and attached them back on the decks.
Overall, it appears to be in decent shape for having 2500 hours accumulated. There have been no fluids leaking during the time I have had it running. It should be a great addition for the golf course. We will have no problem staying on top of mowing duties in the parks, public areas, and the golf course.
Through several course tours I have noticed a lot of standing ice on greens, tees, and fairways. The driving range is almost completely under ice along with the water ways. This ice is always a concern when it remains on these areas for a lengthy period of time. Some has melted but there is still a lot of acres covered with ice. Hopefully this doesn’t carry over into a spring problem.
It has been a busy week at the golf course. It feels great to be on the downward slide to the 2017 golf season. This upcoming week I am going to start sharpening reels and the remainder of rotary mower blades. There will be 34 reels to sharpen and 115 rotary blades to sharpen. It’s going to be a sharp week at the golf course!
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 