11-28-21

Good Morning,

This past week allowed us to complete the remainder of our fall tree pruning at the golf course.  Staff was able to cover the entire golf course and remove any low hanging branches without disrupting the integrity of the natural tree shape.  Tree pruning is essential for the health of the tree, ease of turfgrass maintenance, and allows the golfers to have a safe swing.  We still have one dead tree to remove as well as our stump removal at a later date.

The clubhouse was open several days for golf.  We had approximately 24 golfers on multiple days during the week.  Most of the golfers were members for the 2021 season but our receipts were still worth being open.  The golf course will be open all of next week for golf and closed for the season after Friday, December 3.  Gift certificates will also be available for sale in the clubhouse for your holiday needs!

I was able to complete the equipment, small assets, and clubhouse inventories this past week.  These inventories are used for our annual insurance premiums at the golf course.  Up to date records help us keep accurate documentation of all contents in our buildings and ensure we have the proper coverage for all areas of the golf course.  

This upcoming week Mother Nature is giving us some more great weather.  One of our focal points will be irrigation repairs.  During the irrigation blowout we noticed several small repairs in a dozen of the stations.  These range from a faulty irrigation head, cracked lateral line, or compromised diaphragms.  The warm weather will allow us to complete these repairs at this time when we would normally wait until spring.

The other project will be hauling sand to the traps around the golf course.  The street division will assist us with delivering the sand.  My current plan is to have the trucks drop the sand at the designated trap on the golf course.  The backup plan will be to dump the sand at the maintenance facility and haul it onto the course with smaller trucks.  

Once the sand has been delivered to the traps we will use our trap rakes and loader to distribute it evenly throughout and maintain the original design of the trap.  Hopefully this process goes smoothly and can be completed in an efficient manner.     

I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  Enjoy the sunshine coming our way and contact me if you have questions or need additional information.
—
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

11-21-2021

Good Morning,
We continued to work on sand trap maintenance on the golf course.  There were quite a few traps with damage around the edges.  Some areas are due to leaving the sand traps in the same place after machine raking on a daily basis.  We cleaned these areas out and added new sod to bring the bunker back to its original shape.  The end result was excellent.

 #12 trap repair.HEIC
 #13 trap repair.HEIC

There has also been sand traps with surface drainage issues causing erosion and leaving the trap filled with water for extended periods of time (some traps fill with water due to a high water table).  The right sand trap on #14 green is the most significant problem area with surface drainage.  We removed the sod on the face of this sand trap at a distance of three feet toward the green.  Fill material was added to raise the area approximately 12 inches then the sod was laid back in place.  Here is a few photos:

 14 bunker project

2.HEIC 14 bunker project 5.HEIC 

14 bunker project 9.HEIC

Earlier in the fall we went to each sand trap and pushed the sand from the bottom of the trap up to the face and high parts of the sand traps.  Rainfall and irrigation causes the sand to naturally wash down to the low spots of the sand trap over time.  Going through each sand trap allowed us to return the traps to the original shape and document which ones need sand added late this fall.  Here is a picture of the end result on #5:

 #5 trap finish (2).jpg

Landscaping clean up, minimal tree pruning, as well as one large cottonwood tree to remove will start off the week ahead.  Sand trap work and sod will also be scheduled.  Equipment maintenance will also start soon.  Our last project will be adding sand to quite a few of the traps, once the ground firms up substantially.    

High winds really helped out with leaf removal this past week but also caused some issues.  There are several areas around green mounding where the leaves have accumulated in deep piles.  Heavy piles of leaves can eliminate sunlight to the turfgrass and smother the plant.  This can lead to turfgrass diseases or even lost turf.  These areas will be cleaned up early in the coming week.
—
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

11-14-2021

Good Wintery Morning,

The past week started off with a lot of golfers and it ended with snow and strong winds.  We were able to get a lot of tree pruning completed and removed a few more dead trees from the golf course.  Early this coming week we will continue to work on tree removal and hopefully enjoy a little bit warmer weather and sunshine.
 tree pruning.HEIC

The golf course was irrigated for the final time on Tuesday night.  This moisture will help us enter the winter months with plenty of moisture in the soil.  It was a good thing it was the final round of irrigation since one of our six inch intakes broke in half at the end of the cycle.  It was removed from the wet well and will be repaired in the near future.
 broken intake.HEIC
 broken intake 2.HEIC

Thursday morning we picked up the air compressor from the street division and started blowing out the main lines of the irrigation system.  Mid afternoon we picked up another air compressor from Rent All and planned to start blowing out the lateral lines mid afternoon.  The power outage within the city put those plans on hold until early Friday morning.  The irrigation “blow out” continued until mid afternoon on Friday.  The pumphouse will be winterized on Monday and that will be a wrap on the 2021 irrigation.
 blow out.HEIC

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like additional information.  Enjoy the remainder of the weekend!  Sunshine lies ahead!

—
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

11-7-2021

Good Morning,

This weekend has allowed our golfers to enjoy one last trip around the golf course with some beautiful weather.  The course was pretty steady on Saturday with minimal wind and abundant sunshine.  It looks like today will produce a lot of the same weather and hopefully quite a few players on the course.

Staff has continued to work on the scheduled tree pruning and removal of dead trees around the golf course.  We lost a few more pine trees this season which has become a common occurrence each year.  These trees are not native to Iowa and become susceptible to disease and insects as they get older.  It’s unfortunately a natural process in Iowa that we have to deal with every year.  We will continue tree removal and pruning moving into next week.

A large portion of a silver maple, on #10, was lost during high winds the previous week.  This section of tree was blown into a neighboring spruce tree.  This quickly became a safety concern and was moved at the top of the list for removal.  We were able to safely remove this part of the tree and minimize any damage to the spruce tree.

 #10 maple tree.HEIC
 #10 maple tree (2).HEIC

Our landscaping areas were cleaned around the clubhouse and on #10 waterfall.  The plant material was cut back and the debris was hauled away.  The plumbing for the waterfall was also removed and winterized for the off season.  These areas are now ready for the end of the season.

The colder mornings allowed staff to work in the maintenance facility cleaning and organizing the cold storage area.  This is a great time for us to evaluate the condition of our inventory and decide what is going to stay and what is going to go.  We also seem to accumulate a lot of items that are dropped off by passersby or abandoned next to the dumpsters.  Several trips to solid waste helped us free up a few extra corners in the shop.

We have completed all mowing practices for 2021.  The equipment has been brought into the maintenance facility and all the reels have been removed.  These reels will be sharpened during the off season.  Bedknives will be replaced and/or sharpened as well.  The bedknife is the piece the reel spins against to complete the mowing process.

I irrigated the golf course heavily on Thursday night.  The golf course will be watered one more time before we prepare for the end of the season blowout.  I was able to secure an irrigation permit extension, from the Iowa DNR, for the month of November.  This extension allows us to legally irrigate the golf course beyond the normal water permit window that ended with the month of October.   

This concludes another week at The Muni.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like further information on a topic.  Enjoy the beautiful weather and soak up some sunshine 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