9-23-18

Good Morning,

The past week might have been the one to forget for the year.  Ten inches of rain, over two days, caused very high flood levels across the golf course.  I posted a couple videos on our facebook page that show a lot of detail.  Here are a few photos from around the course:

This photo is the maintenance shed parking lot.

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This photo is the 15th hole.

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This photo is the 12th hole.  Notice the bridge and red tees underwater.

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The heavy rains and flooding gave us some  time to continue working on equipment, cleaning the shop areas, and organizing inventories.  The inside work is always important and was the main focus of our past week.

 There hasn’t been a lot of mowing since Tuesday evening.  This will leave us playing catch up this coming week.  With rain in the forecast, at the beginning of the week, will make it quite a challenge to get everything caught up by the weekend.  I am confident we will get there though.

The new simulator arrived the middle of this past week.  I will start setting this unit up the upcoming week.  We have also applied for the year long liquor license, starting November 15, to accommodate our new winter golf season.

The new advertisement agreements have been distributed to all the new businesses taking over open tee signs.  The ads will be created by Southwest Monuments prior to being attached to the tee signs.

Here is a photo of the 15th tee sign advertisement.

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Brian

9-16-18

Good Morning,

The first week in quite some time with no rainfall.  The amount of golfers has lessened as we move through the month of September.  This is a problem dealt with every season once the golf leagues end.  It’s a hard adjustment to get used to especially when the weather is so nice.

We will be starting our $25 golf with cart on Monday.  There are a lot of people that take advantage if the discount fee.  City employees and elected officials are also allowed to play free golf for the rest of the season.  Cart fees will be $5 per seat as well.

Equipment repairs have been non stop each week.  This has caused me to spend a lot of time, in the shop, working on repairs.  One of the John Deere units is still in Omaha being repaired.  This machine should be back mid week.

All of the yardage markers have been cleaned, old paint removed, and new paint added.  Nine holes currently have the markers back in the ground.  The markers have been placed in the center of the tees instead of the side.  This will eliminate the tires constantly running over the markers.  Here are some pictures:

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Irrigation problems continue to be a major issue.  This past week the irrigation computer stopped working.  The Rainbird Global Service Plan covers our computer as well as other irrigation electronics.  The new computer arrived the following day and we were back in business.

Tomorrow will be the makeup date for the police outing.  Today we are holding a couple’s tournament with around 40 golfers.  Last Sunday we held the Carl Spacklar golf outing.  There were 142 participants.

Hopefully there are quite a few beautiful golf days in our future.  Enjoy your finish to the weekend.  Enjoy the sunshine and share a smile.  Please contact me with any questions so they can be addressed in a timely manner.

9-9-18

Another week starting off with plenty of rainfall causing a saturated golf course for another week.  There was no possibility of any mowing practices until Wednesday.  We spent a lot of late hours getting the course under control by the end of the week.

Wednesday was very wet as rough units drove through the wet turf trying to get the tall grass cut.  Thursday we double mowed fairways to get them back under control.  By Saturday, the golf course was in better playing condition, after everything had been mowed.  The course still was plenty wet.

The 17th green was overseeded a couple of weeks ago.  We have only mowed the center portion of this green since the overseeding.  The grass has been filling in nicely with the aid on continued hand topdressing.  Saturday morning, the 17th green was mowed back to the regular boundary, excluding the back right corner.  I’m pleased with the progress this area is making.

We have completed a lot of sodding in traffic areas the past two weeks.  This heavy rainfall has once again created more cart damage around the golf course.  These areas will continue to be repaired and sodded as we move into the coming week.  The revenue we gained far exceeds the expense of labor repairing these spots.

The first of the seven new advertising sponsors was installed this week.  There were business advertisements, on our tee signs, where the business is no longer in operation.  These holes have been sold to local businesses and will be installed by the end of the year.  Here is the first advertisement plaque installed on hole 15:

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The yardage markers, on all four sets of tees per hole, are nearing the end of the refurbishing process.  Fifteen of the 18 holes have been completed here is a picture of the majority of the tee markers that have been finished:

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The annual police outing was rained out Tuesday morning.  This event is postponed until Monday, September 24.  One of our biggest golf events is taking place this morning.  We have close to 150 golfers playing today.  The weather looks perfect for a fabulous day of golf and a solid day of revenues.

At the beginning of the upcoming week, I will be moving five oak trees from the entrance to the Spencer Soccer Complex.  These trees are currently blocking the soccer sign and have been requested to be removed.  I have touched base with all parties involved, locates are clear, and the trees will be moved when the school traffic is at a minimum.

9-2-18

The week started off with rain hitting us Monday afternoon and most of the day Tuesday and finished with rain today.  This really put us behind on our mowing schedules, but it also gave me time to do a lot of equipment work in the shop.  Equipment repairs continue to join the long list of everything that needs to be done.

I spent all day Tuesday working on equipment repairs.  The head mechanic, from Van Wall Turf in Omaha, was on site to help me with some repairs to one of the John Deere 1600’s.  The other unit was sent back to Omaha to complete the repairs necessary.

It was a very educational morning, Tuesday, learning a lot of preventative maintenance.  I also learned how to troubleshoot the computer on these John Deere units.  Going through a lot of the smaller repair processes was really helpful to gain a thorough understanding of things to look for and how to make repairs.

An extremely wet golf season has left us with quite a few damaged areas in the roughs and fairways.  Cart traffic, going through low areas where water is constantly puddling, has created quite a mess.  We did a lot of hand work followed by adding sod to fairway and rough areas around the golf course.  These areas are currently flagged to try and eliminate cart traffic damaging the repair work completed.

Early in the week several greens were spiked multiple times, overseeded, then top dressed to begin the recovery process in the winter kill areas.  Obviously #17 green is the most damaged and only the center of the green will be mowed to green height.  The remainder of the green will be allowed to grow so the new grass will establish and fill in the damaged areas.  I am very happy with the progress this green is making.

The tiling project, on #16 green surrounds, is still on hold.  The rainfall has put the contractor behind schedule on another project.  Once time allows, he will be on site to complete this work.  He and I are both optimistic this will eliminate the standing water issue in this area.

There are currently seven advertising spots, on our granite tee markers, of businesses that no longer exist in our area.  This advertising was sold, during the construction phase of the golf course, to cover expenses on all amenity items for each individual hole.  In the past couple weeks, all of these advertings have been sold to six local businesses.  I am thrilled to have these businesses become a part of SMGC moving into the future.

The golf course has made a lot of progress, this past week, considering the difficulties Mother Nature continues to throw at us each week.  I am thankful for the hard work of the grounds staff and the continuous dedication by our clubhouse staff.  We are very fortunate to have staff that genuinely care about this golf course and the work they do each day.  The pride definitely shows in their work.  Thank you staff.

That is a wrap on another week at the muni.  Please contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns.  If there are people with questions, or just wondering “why?” please direct them in my direction.  I am always available to listen or provide people with information to the best of my ability.