This past week has seen a continued decrease in the part time hours worked by staff. There has been very little golf activity, due to the cold weather each day. The heavy frosts, on several mornings, has slowed the grass growing around the golf course. Maintenance practices have turned to fall levels this past week. Mowing has been limited and focus is on some of the projects on the agenda.
We have continued to remove dead pine trees from around the golf course. This is a statewide problem and will continue into the future. We have planted more than 200 trees the past two years to try and prepare for the future of our golf course. It will obviously take time for these trees to mature, but we need to focus on future generations and create a solid tree diversification around the golf course.
The extremely wet soil conditions have not allowed us to work on the 16th green surrounds renovation. The sand traps have been filled with black soil but only the south trap area has been shaped. The north sand trap area still needs to be shaped and more material added. This will hopefully happen this coming week.
I irrigated greens and tees, early Wednesday morning, since they were starting to dry out from the excess winds. They all received plenty of moisture and will be in good shape through the weekend.
I plan on eliminating our mowing schedules earlier this season than years past. This will allow the grass to grow a little bit more and provide additional insulation heading into the winter months. The later than normal fertilizer application, on greens and tees, should also provide more turf strength prior to the winter months. All of these steps should help reduce the possibility of more winter damage.
Our revenues are $10,000 behind for the month of October. This is followed by a decrease in revenues from September and August. The weather has not been favorable for more than 14 months. This has been a very frustrating time as we try to control expenses and hope for more revenue days.
Even if the weather is nice, during this time of year, the amount of golf drops off considerably each season. It has definitely been an uphill battle. I feel fortunate that our financial position was prepared, with excess reserve dollars, prior to this poor time period of golf. I can only be hopeful as we move forward.
My focus, right now, is to complete our fall projects and move into the simulator golf season. I continue to deal with issues getting past the firewall and eliminating the possibility of arising issues before I open the simulator for play. It is getting frustrating, but I would rather deal with it now than when the snow is on the ground.
We are holding our first ever Rocktoberfest four person best shot golf tournament today at the muni. There are not a lot of teams preregistered, but maybe we will get some walk ins since the weather looks favorable. It should be a good revenue day either way, compared to the first three weeks of the month.
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 