Good Morning,
It’s been a very busy work week at the muni even though the golf traffic has slowed down, as it always does this time of the season. The entire year has been a challenge dealing with the weather. We had the wettest June and September on record. The other months were nothing short of poor weather either.
The well ran for seven days the entire year. This amounts to 18.55 acre feet of water pumped from the well to the irrigation pond. Our DNR limit is 81 acre feet from April 1 to October 31. This is by far the lowest total ever pumped annually from the well. The irrigation system is not far behind record low totals either.
The abundant rainfall does not slow the grass down from growing on a daily basis. This all adds to the extra man hours on the equipment plus the additional labor dollars spent to maintain the golf course. All the rain reduces our revenue options. Final result of the equation is too much money spent and not enough revenue hitting the cash register.
This past week I fertilized the greens and tees with a fall granular application. The warm temperatures mid week and the rainfall made a direct impact on the health of these turf areas. They look great as we finish the week.
We also started our fall tree removal process. Each year we cut down at least a dozen pine trees that continue to die. Four trees were dropped and the debris was hauled to the maintenance surround for future removal. We still have six more trees to remove in the upcoming weeks.
I spent an entire day with a tutorial from Rainbird learning the new software system for the irrigation system. I remapped the course and programmed each individual station, on the map, to give us spot on control of each area of the golf course. Each station has been mapped based off the location of every valve that operates on the course. It is extremely impressive and makes the whole process work like clock work….considering everything functions properly on the course.
We started the process of filling in the sand traps on #16. The south sand trap has been filled and I shaped the new mounding. The north sand trap has all the fill material added but the rainfall, Thursday afternoon, made it difficult to finish the shaping process. I hope to do some shaping on the north trap this morning.
We used all the old fill material piled around the shop to start our base layer in these traps. The remainder was hauled from the south end of the golf course. This material was all stockpiled from the water quality project. This upcoming week we will be adding sod to complete the repair process in this area.
I’m excited to finish this process and eliminate some of our drainage issues while we wait for the future tile project to be completed. It is not the answer to the drainage problems, but it will eliminate quite a bit of the standing water problem.
I used a personal day, on Friday, to mow at the Country Club. They are currently in between superintendents and have one employee trying to keep up with maintenance practices. I feel it is vital to continue building this working relationship that has been established over the past few years.
I would like to emphasize that my help at the Country Club or time spent responding to medical calls, at the fire department, have no effect on my job at the muni. If I am gone from the golf course, for a short period of time, it is made up later in the day. I always make sure that 100% of the work is completed at the golf course on a daily basis. The golf course is always my first and foremost priority.
This morning we are hosting our annual chili open. It is definitely going to be chilly or chili however you want to interpret the title. We have close to 120 golfers registered to play. Not all will show but it will be an awesome day for the golf course.
Please contact me with any questions or comments. I am always available to provide further detailed information not provided in the weekly updates. For now, I’m going to work on 16 green surrounds and look forward to a great day!
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 