Good Morning,
The week has closed with a wonderful winter wonderland. We had such warm temperatures the majority of the snow melted off the greens and tee areas of the golf course. Rainfall of .25″ arrived early Thursday morning and provided the golf course with plenty of moisture. It soaked into the greens then developed a very this layer of ice on top of the turfgrass. It looked beautiful leading into the blizzard conditions. Overall the golf course is in very nice shape at this time of the off season.
The Street Division was on site to remove the pond material near the pumphouse surrounds. This is the material that was removed during the pumphouse intake repair process. It doesn’t look like a lot of material until you start hauling it away. We were able to complete about 2/3 of the process before the ground condition became too soft. The material is being hauled to the south end of the golf course where it will be leveled and seeded in the Spring. The project will be completed at a later date.
I visited Public Works and asked to remove our dumpsters until the Spring golf season arrives. It is a constant issue of people coming over from the storage units and dumping their trash in our dumpsters and giving no regard to contaminating our recycling. On Wednesday I caught an individual dumping his garbage and approached him for a conversation. He agreed to discontinue dumping his trash and also paid a small fee which I invoiced at the transfer station.
I was unable to work on the welding project due to my time frame and the Street Division using this room for repairs. The snowfall also caused a conflict at the end of the week. I hope the guys have some time to finish this for me in the next couple of weeks and I will then complete the reel sharpening process.
Golfers, please visit our website to make payments for your season passes, cart storage spaces, and punch cards. The golf course will only be allowing single payment options once the clubhouse is open. If you need to make multiple payments your only option is to sign up for the automatic bank withdrawal. This can be completed on our website. All other fees can be made in a one time credit card payment on the website. Please help share this information to the public.
A couple of changes this season are the elimination of corporate season passes and punch cards are raised to a price of $250. Both of these golf options have been abused in the past. The original intent of the corporate pass is no longer working. A single season pass will be your option now. The punch cards are also abused by not checking in to the clubhouse. This is going to be the last season for punch cards if this problem persists.
There had been discussion of exploring a full time clubhouse manager/parks department programmer. After analyzing public feedback, conversations among city staff, and reviewing the success of changes in clubhouse operations I felt like it was in our best interest to put this on hold and gather more information. I would like to go through an entire golf season to see what the total effect of the clubhouse operational changes have on our budget. So far they have made a significant difference.
Lastly, I attended more online education this past week. I have attended over 50 hours of online training this off season. It’s wonderful to have access to so much online education through my Golf Course Superintendents Association of America membership. With the elimination of live conferences and training opportunities it’s allowed me to still gain continued education training and gain a lot of valuable information.
I will be going on vacation shortly after you receive this email. I will be gone for three weeks but still available by email and sometimes phone. Otherwise I hope to get some rest and relaxation and recharge for the start of the 2021 golf season. Please contact me with any comments or questions. Enjoy your weekend.
—
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 