6-24-18

Another wet and wild week is in the books at the golf course. This past downpour brought the water level the highest it has been all year at the golf course. The water quality project, once again, worked perfectly. However, the entire golf course has been completely saturated since Wednesday. A giant clay sponge can only hold so much water.

On Thursday, I moved the evening men’s league since it was a little bit drier than the flooded first few holes on the back nine. The golfers were very respectful of the saturated conditions and very minimal cart damage occurred. Cart tire tracks leaving muddy imprints behind is about the only issue. Those will disappear once conditions dry out and we mow the grass.

On Tuesday, I was able to aerify several of the greens after the evening ladies league finished playing. I aerified 2, 11, 16, and 17. Number 17 green is the worst and it was overseeded with bentgrass following the aerification. This process will help open these greens up a little bit and get water penetration through the soil profile. We will be overseeding 17 green again early this coming week.

We hosted the Jaycees on Saturday morning and had a packed house of fun loving golfers. They had the front nine only for a shotgun start about 9:20. They were finished with golf a little after noon. Next, they played cornhole with the bean bags on the south lawn. That was a lot of fun to watch. It was a great day and nice to see the sunshine.

This morning I sprayed the greens with a fungicide and foliar fertilizer. The fungicide will help control the “dollar spot” fungus that is appearing on several of the greens. The practice green has a brown stretch, from the sprayer, where I started the first spray pass. This will disappear soon and was just a blast of fertilizer starting off the spraying.

I will send out an email midweek to let everyone know how the budget appears at the end of the fiscal period. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me as soon as possible so they can be addressed in a timely manner. Enjoy the sunshine today.

6-18-18

It has been a very busy past couple of weeks at the golf course.  Weather conditions continue to throw every surprise possible at us.  Fortunately we did not receive any hail damage at the muni.  There were some slight indentations and puffiness on our greens but nothing major.  I borrowed any possible equipment necessary, to Ryan Lux, to help repair the hail damage they received at the Country Club.

Next thing you know, our water quality project is tested to the maximum with the heavy rainfall.  I could not have been happier with the success this project on the golf course.  The water was contained, slowly subsided, and caused minimal flooding.  Number 10 fairway and the driving range received a lot of flooding, but that is nothing new.

​All of the sod and seeded areas, from the water quality project were fertilized with another starter fertilizer application.  This application will help these areas continue to develop in a healthy state and speed the recovery process.  We are still slated to get some sod this coming week to finish repairing the remainder of the washout areas from this project.

The irrigation system continues to be a challenge this golf season.  We received another​ electrical hit during one of the storms.  I worked on the repairs most of the day Sunday.  Fortunately, Ryan Lux was able to help me finish the repairs late in the evening last Sunday.  I watered again last night and there were no issues.  Fingers crossed for more success moving forward.

The tile project is still on standby in the 16 green surrounds.  Matt Hagedorn has us on his list and we will add more tile as soon as his schedule permits.  The water has subsided rather quickly after all of the rains but that is not the solution we are accepting.

The 17 green and surrounds will be aerified this coming week.  We will also aerify some of the other green surrounds where turf was lost coming out of winter.  With the irrigation issues and crazy weather patterns it has definitely been a battle maintaining turf this season.  I hope everyone can be patient with the repair process to 17 green.

To add a little more spice to the golf course life, I continue to deal with equipment repair issues on a daily basis.  Most of them are small and not terribly complex, but they take a lot of time.  A couple of the more serious ones have been passed on to the street division or out of town to the company.  It continues to be a learning experience and hopefully I will soon have the knowledge of a master mechanic.

There is so much going on and we are winding down the fiscal period in less than two weeks.  This has been the most difficult budget I have ever closed out due to the horrible spring conditions.  Currently, the golf course is slightly ahead in revenues over finances.  I cannot promise that is how the month will end but I can tell you I am very proud to get the budget this close to being a successful fiscal period.

I am going to stop talking today and get back to enjoying the morning sunshine and birds chirping.  Happy Father’s Day to all of you men on my emailing.  Be proud and love your family each and every day.

June 4, 2018

Good Evening,

I just finished repairing the irrigation line on 12 tees. This damage was caused by the haul road during the water quality project. These irrigation heads are working well now. I will be hand watering these tees and number six tees tonight.  Seventeen green will also be hand watered in the next couple hours.   This will be followed by heavy irrigation cycles on the greens, tees, and approaches. The fairways will be watered at 60% overnight.

The damaged areas on 17 green surrounds will be spiked and hand watered this week. There will also be an overseeding completed. Most problem areas, from the irrigation system will be under control soon.

June 3, 2018

The wacky weather continues for another week in NW Iowa.  Very high temperatures have created a decrease in the number of golfers.  We are still plugging away trying to finish strong as our budget ends June 30.  End of May 2017 financials were $344,707 revenues and $325,113 expenses.  ​Our 2018 figures, for the same time period, are $301,508 revenues and $315,527 expenses.  Staff and myself are doing everything in our power to close the gap and work toward breaking even with the budget.

Purchasing the golf simulator will definitely help our future revenues.  I am still working with two different companies to choose the best product for our situation.  I am hopeful to have the simulator in place by the end of September.  The simulator will either be located in the sun room or the SE corner of the clubhouse.  It will be very exciting to have this option for our patrons.  It will also help promote other clubhouse sales.

This hot and windy weather is always a challenge when it comes to maintaining the golf course turf.  The irrigation issues, that were finally repaired a couple weeks ago, left some of our turf areas very susceptible to damage.  The most noticeable is the area around #17 green and a couple of tee boxes.  These areas will be heavily spiked with some overseeding to help with the recovery process.

I was able to spray a foliar fertilizer and wetting agent late Wednesday evening.  This application also included a fungicide and insecticide.  I allowed the fertilizer until about 4 AM and then irrigated the greens to work the fungicide and insecticide into the root zone of the plant.  The wetting agent and foliar fertilizer will also help with the recovery of these turf areas and provide a healthy turf moving forward.

Friday morning I sprayed tees with a wetting agent, foliar fertilizer, and insecticide.  The wetting agent helps hold moisture in the isolated dry areas.  You can notice a much darker green color on the tees and greens along with some moist footprinting.  This is a result of the wetting agent.  The insecticide will help control the ant problems we see on some of the tee boxes.

Over the next two weeks, I will be teaming up with Ryan Lux to spray weeds at the muni and the Country Club.  This process always works out very well.  We can generally cover both courses over a few days as long as the wind is down and the sun is shining.  We will also be fertilizing fairways with the spring application.  This will provide our turf with the proper nutrition as we move the summer months and provide a healthy turf.

We will also be repairing some of the water quality areas where we experienced some erosion.  Between five green and six tees would be a perfect example.  The pumphouse surrounds also needs some repair work completed.  This process will consist of smoothing out the areas and applying sod.  The sod will be hand watered with a starter fertilizer application in order to establish the sod quickly and eliminate these erosion areas.

The tile areas around 16 green is still on the agenda and will be addressed when Matt Hagedorn has the time to help with this project.  The area has dried substantially during the week or so when the rain stopped.  The storm on Friday night returned the area surrounds to a saturated state once again. It will be a huge relief to have this project completed.

There is so much unmarked tile throughout the Stoney Brook property and the golf course, it makes it very difficult to assess all the repair needs.  There have been some concerns from the Stoney Brook homeowners in regards to tile.  I have no idea where this tile is located or runs to in most areas.  It is most likely the majority of this tile was damaged when that property was being shaped for housing way back in the day.  I will work with the homeowners and do whatever i can on our end to work through some of these problems.