Good Morning,
Wow! Mother Nature never ceases to amaze us. So far in the past three week temperatures have ranged from a low of 21 to a high of 97. One thing that seems to be a constant is high winds. It looks like this morning will be great golf weather with plenty of sunshine, minimal winds, and nice temperatures. This afternoon is forecasting thunderstorms.
It’s hard to believe the trees continue to have branches falling as strong as the winds have been since November. We cleaned up branches Friday morning and completed this process this morning. We will continue to monitor branches on a daily basis, especially in areas where our trees are near neighboring homes.
The golf course is starting to “green up” and turf is finally starting to grow. Staff was busy with regular mowing practices each day. The rough is growing rapidly and kept us busy getting it all trimmed before the weekend. Fairways have started to come to life as well. The greens are still a little bit off color due to the late spring start. It’s been a very slow start to the year.
This coming week we will be fertilizing our greens and tees. These applications will be a granular application to provide the turf plant with the necessary nutrients to develop root growth before the summer months. Fungicide and wetting agents will also be sprayed on the greens to control disease and aid in water penetration.
Pre-emergent for crabgrass control will be applied in our fairways and on our tee boxes. This application is well behind normal scheduling due to the cold soil temperatures during the month of April into May. There will also be a herbicide applied to control the presence of broadleaf weeds.
With the warmer temperatures we are starting to see dandelions popping up around the golf course and in our yards. Once I have completed the spraying on greens and applying the pre-emergent on the fairways, I will start treating weeds. I generally spray the golf course ground along neighboring property owners then work my way inward on the golf course.
Please remember we need sunny skies, minimal wind, and no rain in the forecast to spray for weed control. I am also the only certified applicator at the golf course. It generally takes approximately 30 hours to cover the entire golf course for broadleaf weed control. These applications are very high on the “to do” list and will be completed as soon as possible.
The irrigation system has caused us a lot of issues so far in 2022. The colder temperatures delayed the opening of the system and also caused a lot of damage to the bleeder valves on top of our valves. We finally finished repairing these issues and were able to operate the system Friday night. Irrigation started at 9:00 PM and was completed at 8:00 AM Saturday.
We experienced a few issues that need to be repaired but overall it was nothing major. Overall the system worked well and it was great to add some irrigation to the golf course. It’s such a calming feeling to hear the irrigation run into the early morning hours.
Below are a couple pictures of a broken lateral and damaged irrigation head:
lateral line damage 5-14-22.jpg
We have several graduation receptions over the next couple of weeks. These events will be on the south side of the golf course. The first party is today from 10-1. Please try and use the north and east entrances when possible during this time.
Enjoy the remainder of your weekend. Happy graduation to all members of the class of ’22 and their families. What a great accomplishment for all of you young adults!
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 