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.
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 