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
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 