6-26-2022

Good Morning,

The Saturday morning thunderstorm was definitely a welcome site.  The irrigation system has been operating at 100% for quite some time now.  The well has also been pumping water into our irrigation pond for the past seven days.  We had 1.75″ of rainfall and there was not a puddle of water on the golf course.  

We have continued to have some issues with the irrigation system.  There were some irrigation heads with debris in the bottom which causes the sprinkler to stick and not rotate.  When the weather conditions are this hot and windy it only takes a day to visually see there is an issue.  The practice green, #3, #6, and #7 greens had isolated dry areas.  On Thursday late evening we hand watered these areas and applied a wetting agent.  

The greens started recovering right away with the help of the wetting agent and additional water.  The wetting agent is necessary to help move the water through the soil profile and penetrate the dry areas.  Water alone will not soak into the areas once the dry spots develop.  We will continue to hand water these areas on a regular basis and they will recover over time.  The windy conditions overnight make it very difficult to get good irrigation coverage especially with the high temperatures.  Below is a picture of #3 green and the practice green after the wetting agent was applied:

 #3 Green 6-23-22.jpg

 PG 6-23-22.jpg

This past week I was able to spray 126 acres of turfgrass with a herbicide for control of broadleaf weeds.  Conditions need to be less than 10 mph wind speed with temperatures below 85 degrees.  This definitely makes it challenging to find time to spray.  I started spraying at 3:00 AM several mornings in order to cover as much ground as possible.  All of the fairways (except #5) and tees were treated.  Only 40 acres of the golf course remains to be sprayed.  I hope to finish this coming week.

 #18 6-24-22.jpg

The remainder of the week was spent with our daily maintenance practices.  The non irrigated areas of the golf course have definitely slowed down as far as the growth of grass.  Everything was starting to move into the dormant stage prior to the thunderstorm.  Staff has been very busy trying to stay on top of our daily mowing practices along with everything else on the work schedule.

Saturday we hosted the 2nd annual Jasen Petersen Memorial golf tournament.  There were 174 golfers that participated and helped raise a lot of money for local scholarships in memory of Jasen.  It was a great day with a lot of great people sharing a lot of memories.  The golf course was available for open golf around 4:30 PM.  Today will be open golf all day long.

The pond on #10 was treated for algae early in the week.  Within a couple of days it was all clear.  With the irrigation system running every night there is no longer any overflow running through the waterways.  This is causing the water to become stagnant in the pond.  I need to repair a valve behind #5 green then I will be able to pump water through the stream and get water moving through the pond.  This will help with the odor coming from this area.  

Enjoy the beautiful weather today and soak in a little sunshine.  Please get in touch if there are any questions or more information is needed on a certain topic.  Happy Sunday everyone!

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

6-18-2022

Good Morning,

We worked through the past week limping along our oldest rough unit as the primary mowing equipment on the grounds.  This unit has a broken hydraulic cylinder on the front deck which causes the left side to sit a little lower than normal.  The result has been a slight turf scalping while we mow.  The only other option was not to mow rough while our new unit was in Omaha for repairs.  The good news is the new rough unit is back at The Muni and the old unit will be going into the shop soon to make the necessary repairs.  

The warm temperatures have meant the irrigation system is working a little bit longer throughout the night.  I am trying to apply enough water to the entire golf course to keep our playing conditions consistent.  There have been a few more irrigation issues requiring repairs to be made but for the most part things are working the best so far in 2022.  With the abnormally high temperatures predicted for the next ten days the system will be running every night for extended hours.

Our greens were sprayed with a fungicide, insecticide, wetting agent, and foliar fertilizer on Friday morning.  The fungicide will help control disease pressure.  The insecticide will help control ants and cutworms.  The wetting agent helps hold moisture in the upper soil profile and move water through the soil profile efficiently.  The foliar fertilizer will provide nutrients to the plant for the next 7-10 days.  

 6-18-22.jpg

The waterfall on #10 was on our “to do” list this past week.  The irrigation piping and pump were installed in the pond.  A PVC connection was repaired on the line running up to the waterfall.  We still have a little maintenance to complete around the power source but the water should be running this morning.  Weeds will be treated in the waterfall area this week as well.

Clubhouse staff has been working hard having players sign in at the registration desk as well as filling out information when renting a cart.  We have focused on using the daily fee bag tags for all non members each day.  All of this helps us do a better job of who is visiting the golf course and trying to make sure everyone has paid daily fees or memberships.  We will continue to monitor this moving forward.

The golf board has been doing a great job providing suggestions to help everything move smoothly at the golf course.  Currently all of our staff has been provided with logo shirts to wear while working as well as name tags.  This was an area we had fallen behind and it helps our staff look more professional when meeting our golfers each day.  Hopefully this helps customers identify staff when they visit our facility.

Golf events are always a big part of the golf season at The Muni.  Our tv commercials are now designed to showcase these events as they are approaching each month.  We have one upcoming on June 25 that should be one of the biggest events of the season.  The Jasen Petersen Memorial Tournament is being held for the second year in memory of a great man!  It helps raise money for scholarships for our local students.  It’s going to be a wonderful day!

This week we will continue with a lot of mowing, start edging sand traps, weeding landscaping areas, general maintenance, and spraying dandelions.  Please enjoy the remainder of the weekend and reach out if you have further questions or would like more information.  A very loving thank you to all the fathers on this special day.  I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy some family time!

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

6-12-2022

Good Morning,

This past week’s weather conditions produced some much needed precipitation, warmer temperatures, and calmer winds providing some great golfing conditions.  The rainfall has really assisted our fertilizer applications as our greens, tees, and fairways are starting to show some beautiful shades of green.  Adding in frequent mowing conditions and things are looking pretty good right now.  We got an early jump start on today and we’re ready for more golfers!

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We have been hindered by quite a few equipment issues that all seemed to hit us at once.  The new rough unit had a bad hydraulic situation and was sent back to Omaha under warranty.  The return date has not been established yet.  Our second rough unit lost a hydraulic hose and a pivot shaft on the left wing.  This repair was completed in a few hours and we were back at mowing rough.  This machine has 5000 hours on it and has been “ol’ reliable” since 2012.  We will most likely look at purchasing another new rough unit in the 2024 CIP.

Our Toro trap rake broke a weld on the frame, the old out front mower broke a weld on the engine frame, and we have a broken hydraulic cylinder on “ol’ reliable.”  We will not be able to repair the hydraulic cylinder until the new rough unit returns from Omaha.  We will be getting some assistance from the street division on the other repairs.

The golf board discussed the barn swallow problem in the cart sheds.  I will continue to research this topic but it looks like our best option is to install mesh over all the rafters.  We will also look into the option of moving our private carts out of the east shed and strictly using this shed for our rental fleet.  There are enough spaces in the other sheds to allow this to happen.  This would eliminate private carts being blocked by our rental fleet in the evenings.

Another golf board topic has been the extension of the cart paths on #13 and #15 at the start of each hole.  These areas sit pretty low and generally have standing water each morning and after rainfall.  By removing the top layer of turf and increasing the length of the cart path it will help with traffic flow and eliminate the pot holes.  We will get to these two areas as time allows.

Our POS has been causing a lot of problems in the clubhouse.  It has been a frequent issue but hopefully it is finally resolved.  Solutions, CPay technical support, and I spent a lot of time together this past week working on the issue.  There were a few customers where the card was double charged earlier this week.  Most of these customers have been contacted and the error has been corrected.  As of Thursday the system has been working pretty well.  Jeez, I hate to even utter that phrase out of fear of jinxing it.

This coming week will include a lot of mowing, edging sand traps, weeding landscaping areas, installing the waterfall, general maintenance, and spraying dandelions.  Please enjoy the remainder of the weekend and reach out if you have further questions or would like more 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

6-5-2022

Good Morning,

Thursday morning I was able to spray our greens with a foliar fertilizer application along with a wetting agent and fungicide.  The foliar fertilizer will provide nutrients to the turfgrass for the next seven days.  The wetting agent will help move the water throughout the soil profile and limit isolated dry areas.  The fungicide will protect the turf from disease pressure for the next 14 days.  

Friday was the first day of the season we were fully staffed on the grounds.  It allowed us to get a lot of work completed as we moved toward the weekend.  Four staff members mowed fairways and tees while the other two mowed greens.  I followed behind fertilizing tees and fairways with a slow release nitrogen fertilizer.  This application will take us through the summer months before a second application is applied in early September.  We finished the day mowing rough and string trimming the entire golf course.

We have battled a lot of irrigation issues on a daily basis.  Several main lines have been damaged, valve issues, and pump problems have made for some long days.  Also, our bumper crop of dandelions still needs to be treated with a herbicide application over all 165 acres.  It will take several days of no wind or rain to accomplish this task.  As we move into the weekend the golf course is looking pretty nice considering all of our challenges.

The rainfall Saturday and this morning was welcomed with open arms.  Everything has been so dry going back to last fall.  The three inches of rain earlier in the week soaked right into the ground leaving no standing water anywhere.  The clouds should be breaking away for a little sunshine as we get ready for a golf tournament today.  Below is a morning view from behind #18 green:

 6-5-22.jpg

The golf board will be meeting on Monday evening.  One of the topics on the agenda is to discuss the barn swallow issues in our cart sheds.  I have tried to research remedies to eliminate the birds from being a daily problem.  One of the ideas is to add door covers to each shed.  These have worked at some golf courses with success.  They are a clear plastic material that would still allow visibility coming or going from each shed.  Hopefully we have some good discussion on this topic and can find a solution.

 door cover.jpg

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.  I will see the council and golf board at the respective meetings tomorrow evening.  Please contact me with any comments or questions and I will do my best to provide more 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