12-27-2020

Good Morning,
I hope each of you had a Merry Christmas and a very happy holiday season.  It’s been a long year with the pandemic so it’s not easy to spend time with all our families.  This is a season for giving and sharing and everyone could use a little bit of that on a daily basis.  Whether it was in person, phone calls, or video chatting I hope everyone was able to share some time with loved ones.  I hope 2021 is a little easier on all of us.

The past week at the golf course was spent working in the clubhouse and the maintenance facility.  I worked on fairway mowers in the shop and returned phone calls in the clubhouse.  There were not nearly as many gift certificates sold this year but hopefully the golfers that received one were happy with their present.  We look forward to seeing you in 2021.

The fairway mowers are probably the units that receive the most wear and tear during the season.  These units are from 2012 and have quite a few hours of service accumulated.  The rollers on the reels have a high amount of force placed on them every day while in use.  The rollers keep each reel level, mowing properly, and play a large part in the quality of cut. 

There are two rollers on each of the five reels per machine.  They have bearings and seals on each end along with grease fittings.  They are prone to get a lot of moisture and debris into the bearings.  Daily maintenance is a priority during the season to prolong the life of each bearing.  In the off season the repair process starts by removing the old bearings and seals and rebuilding them with new parts.  

We have a dozen spare rollers to go along with the actual rollers in use.  I have rebuilt a handful of rollers and torn apart the remainder of the rollers.  The roller repair will continue into next week and hopefully will be completed by mid week.

There are still some welding repairs to be completed on seven of the 15 fairway reels.  Once these welds are complete then I can finish sharpening the fairway reels, add the rebuilt rollers, and adjust the cutting height on each one.  They will then be ready for the upcoming season.

The snow storm on Wednesday started off with rainfall then the high winds and blowing snow.  The majority of the snow is behind any mounding on the golf course.  There is very little snow on the greens but at least the rainfall helped provide some moisture.  It is very important to have the greens protected during the winter months.  Especially since the drought conditions, leading into winter, left the turfgrass under a lot of stress.  

I toured the golf course on Saturday and everything looks to be in pretty good shape right now.  There is a very thin layer of ice on the greens which will help protect them from the high winds and colder temperatures.  Hopefully we get a snowfall that stays in place and provides a blanket for the greens the rest of the winter.

The year is winding down and we will be ringing in 2021 at the end of the week.  I hope each of you has a safe New Year and we can all eventually get back to a little bit of normalcy at some point.  Until then stay safe and healthy.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each of you and your families! 
—

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

12-20-2020

Good Morning,
The past week involved a lot of time spent on the 20/21 golf course budget.  It’s very difficult to be precise because of the COVID 19 and dry conditions.  We saw a lot more golfers than we have the past few years and no events were rained out.  For the calendar year we had over $77,000 in green fees and over $61,500 in cart rentals.  The green fees is the highest total in four years.  The cart rental is the highest we have ever received.  Attached is a Google Sheet showing revenue information dating back to 2003: 

season comparisons 12-15-2020

As you can see from the figures on the document revenues vary year to year.  There has been a gradual decline over the past 20 years.  Seeing the positive 2020 calendar year has me very optimistic.  The 20/21 budget is sitting at close to a $60,000 increase compared to the previous year during July thru December.  A solid spring start will put us in a lot better financial shape than the past three years.

The budget can fluctuate substantially depending on the weather.  2017 thru 2019 the weather was high precipitation all season.  This causes the grass to grow more rapidly, the entire course needs to be mowed frequently, and events get rained out.  This leads to higher labor expense, more hours on equipment, and less revenue because of rain days lost.  A dry season results in the rough going dormant, less mowing frequency, and more golf days.  2020 was a perfect revenue season.

Please enjoy the upcoming Holidays and take some time to make somebody’s day a little more special.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each of you and your family!
—
Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

12-13-2020

Good Morning,
The past week ended the golf season for 2020.  I worked in the clubhouse most of the week with Wednesday being the last day for golfers.  There were close to 50 players out enjoying the beautiful weather that day.  It was nice to see how happy each person was to be playing golf this far into December.  Caddie was the last player off the course that evening.  She told me she got a “birdie!”

Thursday morning I sprayed greens with several fungicides, transfilm, and an optimizer.  This application is to protect the greens through the winter and help eliminate fungus from growing under the snow when it starts to melt in the spring.  The fungus is coined “snow mold.”  It was the final part of the outdoor maintenance practices.  

More time was spent attending webinars when time allowed.  It’s truly amazing to have the option to do all continued education hours online during the trying times of 2020.  The room is quiet, nobody’s phone is ringing when the speaker is talking, and there is no line for the bathroom.  Plus it’s a very short drive.  The best benefit is I am able to choose the topics that pertain to me and our golf course.  

If individuals are interested in purchasing gift certificates they can be paid for on our website www.spencermunigolf.com.  Season passes and other fees can also be paid for online.  I will have the website updated this morning with the directions to pay by credit card online.  Just look under the News and Announcements on the home page.

I will be working on equipment and sharpening reels the majority of the time now.  I will finish the golf course budget for 20/21 early next week.  I will also be attending the Capital Improvement Plan meeting Monday evening to discuss the future needs of the golf course.  

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend and please take the time to share a smile with somebody that might really need it this holiday season.  Stay safe everyone.
—
Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa

51301712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

12-6-2020

Good Morning,
This past week consisted of a lot of shop work and continued education hours for my GCSAA Class A certification.  I attended 20.5 hours of webinars online to gain 2.5 CEU’s toward my education points.  It was nice to attend the webinars on my own time and at no cost as a GCSAA member.  I will be watching a little over ten more hours of education this coming week.

The inventory was completed in the clubhouse and the maintenance facility.  I also reviewed the City of Spencer insurance policy line items for all departments to update everything in our department.  I had several conversations with Jeff Bohnenkamp during this process to get a good understanding of what each area of the insurance policy meant for the golf course.  This information was updated and shared with city management.

I started the reel sharpening process this past week as well.  I spent some time with Chief Lawson educating and training him on the process.  I completed the sharpening process on eight fairway reels and Lawson was able to sharpen 15 bedknife blades.  We also completed the sharpening of the majority of the rotary blades.

The rotary blades are sharpened on a special grinder where the degree of the blade is adjusted to provide a straight angle.  Once completed the blade is balanced to ensure it functions properly.  The reels are mounted on a machine, balanced, and each blade is individually run across with the spinning grinding stone.  This process eventually develops a brand new edge on each blade with the proper bevel.  The bedknife is mounted on a special machine, balanced, and sharpened to produce a straight edge for the reel to spin against producing the cut of the turfgrass.

Seven of our fairway reels are at the Street Division to have some welding repair completed.  I hope to get these reels back this week and finish sharpening the remainder of the fairway reels.  There are also roller repairs that need to be completed during this process.

The coming week is bringing in some more nice weather for all to enjoy.  I will most likely have the clubhouse open several days.  Golfers will be allowed to stop in and pay then go play golf.  There will be no seating or congregating allowed in the clubhouse.  The golf course will be closed for the season at the end of this week.  I think this will be the third time I’ve made that statement….

The golf board and city council meetings will both be attended in a Zoom meeting on Monday evening.  I will “see” each of you at that time.  Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.
—
Brian C MohrDirector of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com