4-18-2021

Good Morning,

It’s been another busy April golf week at The Muni.  We held our Virtual Membership Drive raffle drawing last Sunday and announced the winners live on Facebook.  Visit our Facebook Page to watch the live drawing and see a list of the winners.  Currently our membership is at 20 family passes, 39 couples, 132 individuals, 20 young adults, 12 juniors, 15 green fee punch cards, and 14 cart rental punch cards.

The City of Spencer continues to wait for Tyler Technologies to finish the patch for the new TPAR software to be used in the clubhouse.  It’s been a long wait and we are hopeful to have this up and running in a couple weeks.  Another hope is to eventually add online tee times at the golf course.  This addition would better help us accommodate our golfers on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, I continue to enter the individual’s information onto the software platform as they pay their annual fees in the clubhouse.  We are currently asking for the golfer’s name, email address, home address, and phone number.  Entering all of this information ahead of time will make the implementation of the software happen more smoothly.  It’s time consuming now but we will all be happier when we move to TPAR.  Customers will eventually receive a card with a barcode to scan in up registering.

The golf course is in very nice condition for so early in the season.  This past week we were able to mow the majority of the golf course.  Fairways and rough were mowed for the first time of the season as well as greens, tees, and collars. 
The fairway on #11 was widened, on the south side, from the 100 yard grass to the green.  This is a little brown right now but will bounce back once the grass starts growing quicker.  The dogleg is so tight tee shots have always rolled through the fairway into the rough.  Hopefully widening the fairway will keep more balls in the short grass.  

Everything is ready to go for the first golf event of the season held this morning with 100 golfers participating.  This tournament was last held in 2017.  It’s always hit or miss with the weather and thankfully we are hosting it this year.  We sold out of rental carts pretty quick and look forward to the additional ten carts arriving next month.  

Staff and I have continued to explore the tile issues around the small pond behind #12 green.  The tile was probed mid week and actually penetrated the tile causing water to shoot several feet into the air.  This is a sign there is a lot of pressure built up in the tile.  We traced the issue to the outlet on the south side of the pond and possibly on the exit side on the south side of the pond.  We don’t know if the muskrats blocked these tiles with debris or if tree roots are causing the problem?  The street division will help us expose the tile to determine the problem.  It will be resolved as soon as possible.

The Iowa Golf Association was on site, Wednesday, to rate The Muni.  We joined the IGA for the first time in quite a few years in order to bring the course into compliance with the USGA.  Members will now be able to purchase their handicap recording through the clubhouse and it will allow them to play any IGA course with an official handicap.  I have more online training scheduled for Monday to get comfortable with recording handicaps for our golfers.  We will also receive tournament software to manage scoring in a more efficient manner.

Lastly, the golf board approved the contract with Tyler Vaudt to hold multiple junior golf clinics throughout the season.  This contract was approved by Don Hemphill and releases us from all liability.  It’s a great opportunity for our local youth to learn more about the game of golf from a very good area high school golf coach.

We are enjoying some nice weekend weather before the force of Mother Nature reminds us how early in the spring season we actually are.  Please contact me with any comments, issues, or concerns so they can be addressed and further information can be provided to you.

—
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

4-4-21

Good Morning,
This past week at The Muni has been a very busy one.  Golfers have been out in large numbers enjoying the sunshine and taking a few swings at that little white ball!  The nice rainfall really jump started the grass growing and brought a lot of bright green color to everything.   Trees are starting to show signs of life and our mowing schedules are starting to increase.  The course looks great for this early in the golf season. 

Our season pass totals are currently 17 Family, 38 Couples, 119 Single, 19 Young Adult, and 11 Junior.  The Virtual Membership Drive ended yesterday.  We will be conducting the raffle drawings this morning and announce the winners.  Thank you to everyone who registered and paid fees early.  It helps staff out quite a bit to take care of fees in a timely manner.

Last fall the intake was pulling muck out of the pond and running it through the system which plugged quite a few diaphragms in the valves.  These diaphragms would not close or open depending on how much debris was inside.  If they wouldn’t close the irrigation continued to run and would not shut off.  If they would not open, the valve would not let any water through to irrigate.  Staff and I cleaned a lot of these diaphragms prior to the snow flying.   

 
The irrigation system has been opened and each station has been checked individually for performance and completing necessary repairs.  The greens have been irrigated multiple times as have the tees.  There was only one serious irrigation break on #6 green that was repaired.  The most common issue was plungers sticking in the open position on valves.  As each station was tested this past week we found very minimal issues with the valves.  

The golf course board will be holding a special meeting this upcoming week to approve an agreement with Tyler Vaudt to conduct junior golf clinics this coming season.  I think this is going to be a great opportunity for the youth in our community and surrounding area.

That is a wrap on another week at the ol’ golf course in early April.  Please contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.  

—
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

4-4-21

Good Morning,

The golf course was busy from the start of Saturday until the close of the day.  Our tee sheet was filled the entire day.  Lots of new faces and plenty of familiar ones stopped out to spend some time at The Muni.  The day totaled receipts over $13,174 with quite a few being season pass purchases.  Those totals are currently 13 family passes, 32 couples, 96 singles, 16 young adults, and ten juniors.

I have continued to manually enter the players information into the Tyler Parks and Recreation software.  We continue to await the installation of the new software and cashiering system.  The problem has been with Tyler Technologies and a glitch in the cashiering software.  The software patch is scheduled to be complete on April 17.  After that it will take some time to get the golf course up and running.  I would anticipate the end of the month before the transition occurs.

Wednesday we put the pumphouse back together in preparation for water flow.  Thursday morning I filled the main lines and went through about 15 stations that we had issues with last fall.  Everything went fairly smoothly with only one leak visible by #6 green.  Friday I went through all the stations for green and tees.  There were a few valves that did not shut down properly but no major issues.  Tomorrow we will go through the fairway stations and also start irrigating the greens and tees.    We will continue to have some valves to work on after the intake issues last year but it looks pretty promising to start the season.

We have mowed greens a couple of times and mowed the tees this past week.  The grass is definitely ready to take off but we need more moisture.  Hopefully we will have the irrigation system running at full capacity early this coming week.  The soil is definitely dry and some nice rainfalls would be just the cure.

It’s been busy so far to start the 2021 golf season.  Our turnout with golfers has been great to see.  The majority of the clubhouse part time staff has been working on the schedule.  The maintenance department has been operating with only a couple of employees.  The remainder of maintenance employees will start working later this month.

We are getting ready for a beautiful Easter Sunday at The Muni.  We have quite a few tee times on the books.  The weather looks spectacular.  I would please encourage golf board members or others to contact me with any questions or concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.  I will see many of you at the golf board and city council meetings Monday evening.  Make the day beautiful!!

—
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