Good Morning,
The past week started off with the golf course extremely saturated and the maintenance staff way behind schedule. We mowed most of the day Monday, late in the day Tuesday, and finally had the entire golf course covered by late Wednesday morning. Heavy winds started drying things out rapidly.
The tile on hole #13 had not been functioning properly during the heavy rainfall days. This caused extremely wet conditions on holes #5 and #13. Tim Hamrick, from the cemetery, came out on Tuesday and exposed the tile with their mini excavator. The tile ran full bore for several hours. After 24 hours the majority of the turf had dried out and the tile was functioning.
This tile was plugged with tree roots which created a giant cork in the tile. This is the same problem we encountered last year. We plan to replace the perforated tile with a solid tile in this area to eliminate this issue in the future. We will also add a tile clean out so we can access the tile from ground level.
On Wednesday morning I fertilized the fairways and tees. This granular application will provide nutrition to the turfgrass until the month of May 2022. It will also help the turf recover quickly from the fungal issues we experienced. The course has been irrigated multiple times to push the fertilizer prills into the turf canopy. There is already a nice green tint appearing throughout the golf course.
This coming week will focus on normal course maintenance schedules. String trimming and clean up will also be happening around the golf course. Herbicide applications, tree removal, and hand top dressing will be some of the other practices started.
Please contact me if you have questions or concerns. Enjoy the remainder of the 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 