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:
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.
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
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 