6-30-19

Good Morning,

We have definitely arrived to the season of Summer.  This is the time of year when we depend on the irrigation system working at a high level and providing good coverage throughout the course.  I irrigated greens and tees early this morning to help prepare them for the hot daytime hours.  There have been a lot of problems with the irrigation system and I’m hopeful they are all behind us and the system works properly.

The high temperatures have started to impact our non irrigated areas of the golf course.  These grasses are starting to turn to the dormant stage.  This process has not occurred for multiple years at the golf course.  It is beneficial to our maintenance schedules and the budget since it lessens the hours spent on our rough mowers and also reduces the labor expense since we are mowing these areas less.

Heavy storms, on Thursday, were not as damaging as other areas of town.  We lost three trees and received minimal hail damage.  The high winds left thousands of small twigs covering the golf course.  We have cleaned up the majority of the golf course and are moving back into normal maintenance mode.  I’m thankful to the staff for going the extra mile to get these areas cleaned up in a timely fashion.

We were able to clean up some off property areas this past week.  The waterway running east of the Prime Rib was string trimmed and some hand mowing completed.  This area was created during the 2017 water quality project.  The golf course agreed to include this area in our maintenance schedules.

Also, the area between the waterway and field on 4th Avenue SW was finally mowed.  We have maintained the area off the street up to the waterway in the past and now include the area on the west side of the waterway.  We will keep both of these areas maintained as we move forward.

 

6-16-19

 

Good Morning,

It has been a very busy week at the golf course.  The course is finally drying out and the battle to get everything under control continues on a daily basis.  We spent some long days, early in the week, to get all of our trimming caught up.  Then it was busy days getting everything mowed and up to our standards on the grounds.  By the weekend everything was in good shape.

The irrigation system has been a never ending battle for more than just this year.  I dealt with technical issues along with irrigation leaks all week long.  The 6″ intake, to the lead pump, blew on Thursday morning.  I was getting some extra irrigation time on the greens when I lost all pressure.  A short trip to the pumphouse showed water forming a small swimming pool.  About 250,000 gallons of water filled the pumphouse.  Fortunately it all went back down the wet well with minimal waste.

I glued a new flange on the intake and let it set overnight.  Early Friday morning I assembled the intake and got some much needed water on the course.  I also spent a few hours, Friday evening, adjusting the control settings in the pumphouse control panel.  Thankfully the technician was able to provide technical support.  The weekend has consisted of a lot of water applied to the golf course.

With so much rainfall this year, the root structure of our turfgrass is very shallow.  This causes an issue when the wind blows and the top part of the soil starts to dry out and get crispy.  The root structure is so shallow it needs more moisture on the surface.  You can see lots of dry areas throughout the golf course and probably even your home lawn.

There are currently two large irrigation leaks on #11 and #13 fairways.  These problems happen when there is damage to the snap ring and surface water flows back into the head down into the pvc line.  It occurred during the heavy rainfall in March.  We have the areas exposed and will replace the pipe early this coming week.

I would like to wish a very happy Father’s Day to all of the men out there.  Each of you has been influential in shaping lives in this beautiful community.  Enjoy your day and cherish your family every day!

6-9-19

Good Morning,

Another week is completed and the weather has been above what we have experienced this season.  Staff and I have been very busy trying to catch up with our mowing and weed control.  I also lost one of my part time staff members due to health issues.  We are currently two people short since Tiffany is at the hospital, in Iowa City, with her brother.  It has been a busy weekend.

The irrigation system has been challenging again this year.  There were technical issues with the new pump control panel as well as an electrical short Friday morning.  The electrical short has been repaired and the pump technician was on site Friday morning completing programming for the computers in the pumphouse.  The system worked quite well the past few nights with only one irrigation line break in #11 fairway.

This is the first time in a couple of years the irrigation system will be functioning at full capacity.  I will be able to leave the pumps in automatic mode and the system charged during the day.  I will also run all programs with my phone from any location.  Once I go through a few nights with everything operating correctly I will rest a lot easier.

With the technical issues, it was necessary for me to irrigate the greens manually during the night on Tuesday and Thursday.  I was able to keep the greens saturated and in pretty good shape until the rest of the problems could be resolved.  I monitored the irrigation cycles during last night’s programs and everything appears to be functioning properly.

Our herbicide applications have been going smoothly.  Over 95% of the course has been sprayed and the broadleaf weeds are dying.  The dandelions and clover have been the biggest weed issues.  The dandelions are dying rapidly and the clover is either dying or completely suppressed.  Any clover that is not dying will at least be suppressed to the point where no white flowers will appear.

We still have a lot of string trimming to complete as well as stay on top of normal mowing practices.  The warm weather has really kick started the grass.  The good news is we are finally starting to dry out.  Even the parking lot has firmed up with no signs of water.

Last Sunday we hosted 154 golfers in the June Carl Spackler golf outing.  We also hosted our annual two gal triple treat on Tuesday morning.  Both events had great golfing weather and went well.  These events are not only fun for our golfing community but a big part of our success at the muni.  We have had league golf and open play the remainder of the week with good numbers.

It has been a very difficult start to the season for a third year in a row.  The weather has really wreaked havoc on us and it seems to be the worst this season.  Our season passes and green fees are down.  Currently I am setting up lists of fees that are due for cart storage and season pass payments.  It gets tougher each year trying to collect these fees in a timely manner.

Enjoy the remainder of the Flagfest weekend taking in some of the fun activities and enjoying the sunshine.  Please contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.

6-1-19

I am sending the golf update one day early due to a large tournament in the morning.  I will be busy trying to get everything organized prior to the 9:15 AM shotgun start.  156 golfers will be teeing it up tomorrow morning to have a great social gathering with some serious bragging rights on the line (the only people who actually care about the bragging is the winners).

The weather has turned for the better as we enter the month of June.  All of the rain and changing temperatures has negatively affected our budget and course condition.  Some days the rainfall puts us on the borderline of whether or not the course should be open for golf.  This is a very serious situation that I think about a great deal.  The majority of the time the course is saturated but still playable with minimal damage done by carts.

Also, the revenue part of the equation weighs very heavy in this decision making process.  I don’t ever want to have the golf course open if there is a risk of damage done by carts.  Some days it might not seem like the course should be open for play, but the total damage done to date is very minimal from these days.

Herbicide application has been my top focus of this past week.  I promise you I hate the dandelions a heckuva lot more than you do.  It has been very difficult trying to find weather conditions to spray these pests which makes me dislike them even more.  The entire town is covered in these weeds and it makes for some very ugly topography.  Well, I have been working diligently to remove them from the golf course.

I started spraying on Thursday morning and made it to mid afternoon.  Early Friday morning I was back in the seat of the sprayer adding hours onto the hour meter.  By Friday nightfall I completed 17 applications of herbicide to the course.  This amounted to 136 acres of turf sprayed.  I sprayed tees, fairways, and rough (everything but the greens).

Saturday morning I completed holes #5, #12, and #13 with two tank loads of herbicide.  The remaining areas are the rough between #5 and #6, #13 tees and surrounds, #14 south rough and fairway, and all of #15.  I will be spraying more this evening once the traffic dies down.  I hope to complete the majority of the remaining areas.

There are only a few holes left to treat before I start hand spraying around trees, bushes, etc.  I will return in the fall to make another broadleaf weed control application.  There should be very few weeds left on the course after a week or so.

Our maintenance schedules have been very difficult with the heavy rainfall and standing water.  We hit it very hard the last couple of days this week to get things as caught up as possible.  This creates a lot of work hours and not enough hours in the day.  I am happy with the condition of the course as we prepare for one of our largest tournaments this morning.

Our parking lot is finally starting to come around.  We have been dragging it multiple times every week trying to speed up the healing process.  The base is finally starting to firm up.  We had a difficult time moving much material around on Friday.  I take that in a positive light and hope the wet spots are history.

Our air conditioning units were not working at the end of the week.  Hanson’s Plumbing and Heating is on site this morning correcting the issues.  We will have air in the clubhouse by late morning.

Enjoy your weekend and soak up some sunshine.  We never know when it will turn into rain.  I also hope our farming community has great weather to get their crops planted removing this burden from their shoulders.