4-24-22

Good Morning,

This past week there were golf league meetings in the clubhouse over the course of several nights.  League members established their 2022 rules and signed up teams for the season.  Our golf leagues are a great way for people to meet new faces and enjoy a round of golf.  We have golf leagues most days of the week, during the season, but open golf is still available on nine holes.  League play will start the first week of May for most groups.

Our greens and collars were mowed on Wednesday for the first time of the year.  Last season we were in full maintenance mode by the third week of March.  This season is over one month behind schedule.  The collars have been extended on almost every green.  Eventually part of the collar area will be mowed to green height to expand the putting surface on most holes.  Below are photos taken right after mowing these collar areas:

 #8 collar 4-20-22.jpg

 #17 collar 4-20-22.jpg

 #18 collar 4-20-22.jpg

Over the years our playing areas begin to reduce, whether it be tees, fairways, or greens.  Mowing practices do not always get the reel out to the very edge of each mowing perimeter.  This spring we will be mowing these areas back out to the original perimeters from the 1999 construction.  Some of the grass might experience slight discoloration until it recovers but there will be no damage done to the turf in the long run.  As you spend time on the golf course you will notice quite a few of these areas.

Our new gas barrels were installed late last week and the containment bay had an entryway cut into the concrete wall.  The new pumps were installed on Wednesday and the electrical work was completed on Thursday.  The next phase will be to pour a concrete pad to complete the fueling station.  Thank you to Mark Krieg and Mark White from Public Works for a lot of assistance on this project.  Also, thank you to Street Division staff for lending a hand with the containment area.  It is much appreciated.  
I started filling the irrigation system on Wednesday afternoon but didn’t get very far.  Several bleeder valves broke on top of the valves causing the line to malfunction.  There were also several other valve boxes filled with ice which affected the operation of that particular station.  We started making repairs on Thursday morning and worked on the system the remainder of the day.

 #13 valve box 4-20-22.jpg

On Thursday, golf course staff worked with other city employees from all the departments to clean the ditches from AmericInn all the way to the East of Asher Motors.  This clean up project has happened on an annual basis for several years.  The amount of garbage removed was mind boggling.  At least these areas will remain clean for a while.
This morning we will be hosting our first golf tournament of the 2022 season.  The weather is not perfect but we have a lot of golfers signed up to enjoy the camaraderie on the golf course for a handful of hours.  We have one more week of open golf until our league play begins.   

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

4-17-2022

Good Morning,

Happy Easter to each and everyone today!  Enjoy your day and help spread a little sunshine!

 Easter Sunrise.jpg

We’ve been dealing with cold temperatures for another week at The Muni.  Golf has been limited for most of the week.  There were some players on Saturday which was more than we anticipated.  We are just as excited for the golf season to arrive as most are most golfers.  

Our season pass totals are about 50% of 2021 totals.  I’m very pleased so many golfers have stopped in to pay their fees for 2022.  Once the warmer temperatures arrive so will our golfers.  I will keep you posted on these totals: Family 10, Couples 41, Single 78, Young Adult 12, and Junior 26.  These totals are through April 16.

League meetings will be happening over the next week.  Here is a list of those league meetings:

Monday Night Mixers co-ed,  4/25 @ 7:00 PM

Tuesday Night Ladies,  4/19 @ 5:30 PM

Wednesday mid PM Men, 4/20 @ 4:30 PM

Wednesday PM Men, 4/20 @ 6:00 PM

Thursday PM Men,  4/21 @ 6:00 PM

Another week of extremely high winds led to a lot of garbage being blown throughout the community.  We spent time cleaning up all areas of the golf course to remove trash and other debris.  The winds continued to bring in more debris each day.  We removed around 20 garbage cans of trash from the course and will add to that total this coming week.  

Staff spent some time cleaning up the sand covering several of the greens.  This sand was previously in the sand traps.  Upcoming, these greens will be aerified and then we will drag the sand to fill in the aerification holes.  The 50 mph winds removed the remainder of new sand out of all the traps.  #4 and #14 greens were almost 100% covered with sand.  Below are a couple of pictures of the sand rows during the clean up process:

 #4 green 4-17-22.jpg

 #13 green 4-17-22.jpg

The set up in the pumphouse continued early this past week.  I installed the copper tubing, pressure relief valves, gauges, etc.  I primed the pumps and started filling the main lines of the system.  I filled the system to about 30 psi which is 30%.  I stopped filling the system any further due to the 20 degree temperatures forecasted for most of the week.  I will fill the system and start running through stations mid week.

It looks like Mother Nature is going to start sending us some warm weather by Wednesday.  Precipitation is also in the forecast for a couple of those days.  The golf course definitely needs the precipitation and warmer temperatures to help with growing conditions. 

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend.  Please get in touch if you have questions or would like any 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

4-10-22

Good Morning,

The past week was cold and very windy which limited the golfers and wreaked havoc on our sand traps once again.  We have lost quite a bit of the new sand in the traps for a second time.  It’s been very frustrating to watch but we are always at the mercy of Mother Nature.  The sand traps will be addressed at a later date during the golf season.

Saturday brought sunshine and lots of golfers to The Muni.  Our tee sheet filled up rapidly as the morning passed.  It was great to see so many golfers out enjoying themselves on the golf course.  Sunday looks to be a little bit windier but we have quite a few golfers signed up to play again today.  

With the cold temperatures the golf course is quite a bit behind the condition it was in one year ago.  We need some warm weather and rainfall to get the grass greening up for the Spring.  I have attached a photo of last year on April 10 and today’s photo:

 4-10-21.jpg

 4-10-22.jpg

The golf course is still very soft and we have not been able to get the port a potties open for the 2022 season.  The contractor locked the units last fall and has not been able to get out on the course to prepare them for the new season.  I hope to get them on the course tomorrow to get the units operational before we get more rainfall.  

Staff spent time cleaning up the golf course this past week.  Garbage was removed from the streams, water ways, and ponds.  We hauled ten garbage cans filled with debris from these areas.  This coming week we will pick up the ditches and out of play areas.  

The pumphouse was one of our main projects we completed.  We installed the intakes and prepared everything for the Spring start up.  I will start filling the main lines sometime in the near future.  With rain in the forecast we don’t need to have the irrigation system operational but I want it ready to go so any necessary repairs can be completed.

The greens will most likely not be mowed this coming week.  Several night time temperatures are forecasted for the low 20’s.  I don’t want to remove any of the dormant leaf blades and jeopardize the health of the greens.  We will eventually get proper weather conditions and normal course maintenance will become the norm each day.

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend.  Please contact me with any 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

4-3-2022

Good Morning,

The past week staff was busy working on the grounds in preparation for the start of the 2022 golf season Saturday morning.  We have picked up a lot of small branches from all over the golf course, removed trash and debris, and continued to work on sand traps.  Cleaning up the course has been a focus for the past couple of weeks.  The high winter winds and minimal snow cover created a lot of mess.

The cups were cut on Thursday afternoon because temperatures were forecasted for 20 degrees that night and I was worried it would develop a frost layer on top of the soil.  Garbage cans and yardage stakes were also placed on the course.  Hand rakes were set around each trap even though we have not finished our work with the new sand.  

Friday late morning we mowed the tees at a higher cut than normal to clean them up a little bit.  The greens were mowed at a very high cut only to remove debris and not cut any grass.  The temperatures are still too cold to comfortably start mowing grass.  The dormant part of the grass acts like an insulation source and helps protect the crown of the plant from possible winter damage.

In the next week or so we will start mowing greens to remove the dormant grass.  At this time we will start expanding some of the greens.  Over time several greens have become smaller in size from changed mowing practices.  These areas will be a little discolored for a while but eventually will be unnoticed.  

Opening day was a big success.  The temperature did not reach the 60 degree mark but it was definitely golfing weather.  We originally had a four person best shot scheduled for today but I cancelled the event since this was opening weekend for golfers.  Our next event, a four person best shot, is scheduled for April 24.

The overall condition of the golf course is pretty good right now.  The rainfall Friday night was not a lot but it definitely helped.  Once our nighttime temperatures get into the 50’s the grass will start greening up and growing.  Until then we will not be mowing a lot of turf.  

The irrigation system was up and running last year at this time.  We are quite a bit behind last year in a weather sense.  The golf course opened on March 12 last year.  This coming week the pumphouse will get put back together and I will start the system late in the week.  We need to have the irrigation source to help with the dry conditions on the greens.

The street division has been out twice in the past few weeks to grade our parking lots and help remove some of the ruts from the winter.  Now we are starting to see the moisture go out of the ground and lots of small frost boils are popping up throughout the main parking lot.  We have set up cones by the west cart shed to keep vehicles out of the worst area.  

Please contact me with any questions or for any additional information.  Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.  I will see the council members and golf board tomorrow evening at the respective meetings.–

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