5-30-21

Good Morning,

The rainfall has been extremely beneficial for the golf course.  It slowed down our golfers for a couple of days but the moisture has really been a blessing.  Our fertilizer applications, earlier in month, has really kicked the turfgrass into high gear.  Green grass is a beautiful thing!

This has kept us very busy with our mowing and maintenance practices.  It has been necessary to mow some evenings trying to stay on top of the grass.  We mowed the rough two times during the past week.  Fairways were mowed several times.  Greens are mowed every day.  Tees and collars were mowed several times as well.  The entire golf course was string trimmed on Thursday.  By the end of the week the golf course was looking great for the holiday weekend.

Our golf leagues will all be in full swing this coming week.  Even though there are golf leagues most days of the week, there is still open golf on one of the nine holes.  We also have several events scheduled for the next month.  These events will close the golf course for a period of time before open golf begins.  All events are currently listed on the website.

The new rough mower was scheduled to arrive in Omaha by the end of this past week.  This would allow delivery sometime this upcoming week.  The rental carts have not been shipped to Speed’s yet.  They have no delivery date in site at this time.  I’m praying they arrive in the next couple weeks.  We have one event in July that needs 40 rental carts.  

In the next couple of weeks I plan to finish the herbicide applications on the remainder of the golf course.  Rainfall and wind in the forecast these past two weeks has limited the ability to treat the broadleaf weeds.  Hopefully we have some nice mornings to spray this coming week.  Dandelions seem like they have taken over Spencer.

Enjoy the remainder of your Memorial Day weekend.  We look forward to seeing a lot of golfers the next couple of days!  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

5-23-21

Good Morning,

The past week blessed us with some much needed precipitation.  I have already been pumping water out of the well to keep the irrigation pond at a high level.  This is definitely the earliest I have turned the well on as far back as I can remember.  The Iowa DNR license allows us to pump 81 acre feet of water from the well and 121.5 acre feet of water from the irrigation pond from April 1 through October.  It makes me nervous to be using this much water so early in the season.

We applied the Spring granular fertilizer application to the greens on Wednesday morning prior to the rain.  Right after application, I irrigated the greens for 15 minutes at a station to break down the fertilizer prill.  The course has now been fertilized and the grass is already benefiting from the nutrients and moisture.  Unfortunately, so are the dandelions.

The tees and fairways have been sprayed with a broadleaf herbicide and crabgrass preemergent.  This past week I was unable to spray due to high winds and rain in the forecast on a daily basis.  Hopefully the upcoming week will provide us with some nice mornings to get the sprayer going again and knock down some dandelions.  They are everywhere in 2021.  

Mowing, mowing, and more mowing.  That has been the highlight of the past week.  The fertilizer, rainfall, and warm conditions have produced grass on steroids it seems.  The equipment has been going at full strength trying to keep up.  The grounds staff has done a great job keeping the course looking very nice so far this season.

We hosted a graduation reception last Saturday evening and will have another one Sunday (today) evening.  The first one went very well.  I already have several requests for reservations in 2022.  I would like to wait a week or two to see what kind of feedback everyone gets from the golfing public before we proceed.  We are here to provide a recreational environment first and foremost.  I don’t want these events to interfere with that goal.

The clubhouse staff has been very busy this season and doing a great job.  When the weather has been nice, the golf course has a lot of players stopping out.  Our season pass totals are currently at 22 families, 56 couples, 164 singles, 23 young adults, 24 junior, and 38 punch cards.  It has been five years since our season pass numbers were this high.  Green fees and cart rentals have also been up quite a bit in comparison to the past few years. 

This past week I used some vacation time.  I was away from the golf course for part of the day during most of the week.  I was still available by cell phone and continued to be in and out of the office in the afternoons.  The golf course staff has continued to do a great job inside the clubhouse and on the grounds.  I have full confidence in the staff and it makes it easier to be gone when necessary.  Thank you to all the employees!  

The coming week will be open golf along with leagues playing during the weekdays.  Almost all golf leagues have started for the season.  The weather has not cooperated with all the league times but hopefully this week we will have perfect golf weather!

This is a wrap on another week at The Muni.  Please contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.  Enjoy the remainder of 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

www.spencermunigolf.com

5-16-21

Good Morning,

Early in the week there was a lot of turf care throughout the golf course.  The greens were sprayed with a wetting agent and a foliar fertilizer.  The wetting agent was irrigated into the soil profile where it will help hold moisture throughout the soil profile and help control isolated dry areas.  The foliar fertilizer was absorbed through the plant tissue to provide immediate nutrition to our greens.  The warmer temperatures have helped see the foliar fertilizer take effect.

The fairways and tees were sprayed with a broadleaf herbicide and a preemergent to control the development of crabgrass.  The herbicide needed a minimum of one day with no irrigation to get the most benefit from the application.  The preemergent was irrigated into the top of the soil profile the following night.  This application will help eliminate so much crabgrass in these areas.

The tees and fairways were not mowed after these applications were applied in order to receive the highest results for weed control.  They are a little shaggy right now but we will resume normal mowing practices on Monday.  The broadleaf control is definitely showing results in these areas.

Unfavorable wind and rainy weather made it impossible to spray the remainder of the week.  This coming week I will continue to spray herbicide for broadleaf weed control around the golf course.  Dandelions seem to be at an all time population high all over the place.  I will continue to make applications as weather conditions allow.  

We sprayed weeds around the clubhouse and some of our landscaping areas early in the week.  These applications were made with glyphosate and the weeds are starting to wither and turn yellow at this time.  I would imagine in a week or so they will be completely eradicated.  We will continue to periodically spray these areas for new weed development.

Friday we were able to do a lot of cleaning and organizing in the clubhouse.  We hosted a graduation reception on Saturday afternoon in the clubhouse.  The guests used the south side of the clubhouse while the north half of the clubhouse was still available for our golfers.  The reception went very well for the families, guests, and staff.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.  Grab some sunshine and create some laughter.  Please contact me with any comments or questions.
—
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

5-9-21

Happy Mother’s Day!

Spring brings a lot of fluctuating temperatures that can be stressful on the bentgrass greens.  We have experienced temperatures ranging from 20 – 95 degrees in the past couple of weeks.  The soil temperature is not quite warm enough for granular fertilizer applications to the greens and turf health is a priority.  Our Providence Bentgrass does not do very well with cold temperatures and can look a little sickly.  Once temperatures remain normal the grass will begin to flourish.

Tonight I will be applying a wetting agent that must be irrigated following application.  This wetting agent helps hold moisture in the soil profile at a deeper level.  Monday morning I will be applying a foliar fertilizer and another wetting agent that holds moisture closer to the soil surface.  The foliar fertilizer will be absorbed through the plant tissue and provide some nutrition.  Both wetting agents will assist the turf by moving water through the soil profile and eliminating the isolated dry areas on greens.

We will also be applying our granular fertilizer application to the tees and fairways.  This application will provide these turf areas with a slow release nitrogen for the next several months.  It will take several days for the fertilizer to work it’s way down to the soil level.  This fertilizer is utilized through the roots of the turfgrass.  In the next week or so the greens will be fertilized with a granular fertilizer.

Our past week has consisted of a lot of course maintenance trying to keep up with the mowing.  The irrigation system ran almost every night the past week.  I turned the well on for several days to try and maintain the pond level.  We have used a lot of irrigation water so far this season.  

Several of our golf leagues have started and the weather was pretty nice for the first week on the schedule.  The golf course always has open golf on one of the nines during league play.  This allows the public to enjoy the golf course as well.  We’re excited to have the golf leagues begin with everyone enjoying spending some time with us at The Muni.

As of this morning our season pass totals are 21 families, 55 couples, 160 singles, 22 young adults, 19 juniors, 31 green fee punch cards, and 17 cart rental punch cards.  Our revenues for the 20-21 budget are currently over $378,000.  The 2021 golf season has picked up right where the 2020 season ended.  We have been very busy at the golf course and look forward to what the season has in store for us.

Please contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.  Enjoy this special Mother’s Day!  Share a smile with someone today!
—
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

5-2-21

Good Morning,

The past week was another busy one at The Muni.  The month was one of the busiest Aprils in all the years I have been at the golf course.  Every nice day of the month the golf course was busy with lots of golfers enjoying some outside recreation.  There are new faces and plenty of familiar ones so far this season!

Saturday morning we had received 21 family, 50 couple, 153 single, 22 young adults, and 18 junior season passes.  We have already exceeded our 2020 season pass totals.  It’s great to see all the golfers and thank you for choosing The Muni to spend some of your free time.  We love seeing you!

Early in the week fresh mulch was added to the clubhouse and tee box landscaping areas.  This mulch will help hold moisture in the soil for the plants and keep the areas looking clean and fresh.  The waterfall landscaping and a couple of other beds will be addressed this coming week.  We will periodically be spraying weeds in these landscaped areas.

We are starting to see signs of dandelions and other broadleaf weeds.  Spring time generally consists of high winds, rainy days, and fluctuating temperatures.  Spraying can be accomplished on days with no rain in the forecast and wind blowing less than 10 mph.  Herbicide applications will be made in a timely manner when I am able to spray and limit the amount of drift.  

The irrigation system has been a big part of our focus this past week.  We have been cleaning valves and checking stations to get everything operating correctly.  The last few nights the irrigation system has thrown out about 440,000 gallons of water each night.   Because the dry conditions in 2020 have carried over into this season there is very little soil moisture present and the need for irrigation has increased dramatically.  The irrigation system is currently working great with very minimal issues.  A far cry from past issues including the intake issues last season. 

Our tile situation behind #12 green has been resolved.  Muskrats had plugged two tile lines with debris over the winter.  The Street Division used their jet truck to clean these tiles.  There was a lot of saturated ground through #13 and #5 heading to the south.  This tile is received from the farm land to the south of the golf course and dumps a substantial amount of water into our ponds.  Everything is functioning the way it was intended at this point.

Golf course maintenance was also a large part of our work week.  The entire golf course is now growing at a fast pace and frequent mowing practices are being implemented in all areas.  It’s been a very busy week with a short staffed maintenance crew.  I thank the guys for all of their hard work and dedication.   The golf course looks great this weekend.

Clubhouse operations have been going very smoothly.  Staff are staying on top of everything and accommodating our customers each day.  It’s a little overwhelming when the course is filled with non stop tee times from 7 AM until late evening.  Each staff member takes a lot of pride in their work and it definitely shows.  Thanks to each one of them for going above and beyond.

There have been several medical emergencies within my family the past few weeks.  I am very appreciative of golf course staff responding in such a helpful manner.  Employees really stepped up their game to ease my stress of being gone several days.  There will still be upcoming days, I will need to step away from work to be with family and I appreciate the help and support from everyone.    

Please contact me if you have any comments, questions, or concerns so they can be addressed in a timely manner.  I will see the golf board and city council at the respective meetings on Monday evening.  Enjoy the remainder of the weekend and share a smile with somebody!
—
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