News

Good Morning,

 

It was another week with heavy rain and the grounds staff was busy trying to play catch up with maintenance practices. The Muni has received 9.05" of rain for the month of July. The golf course is completely saturated and we have had surface flooding multiple times during the past couple of weeks. The golf course is currently playable but it is still very wet in most areas with some standing water in places. 

The high temperatures and humidity have created a perfect environment for the grass to be growing out of control. We have been mowing fairways four times a week and double mowing greens on a regular basis. The rough is keeping us on our toes trying to get over the entire golf course at least twice a week. 

Normal weather conditions at this time of year are closer to drought conditions which cause the non irrigated areas of the golf course to start turning dormant and require a lot less mowing practices. This is generally the time of year we try to get a lot of our projects completed. With the current weather conditions our main focus is daily maintenance and everything else is on hold.

Our sand traps have been washed out multiple times over the past couple of weeks. The water table is so high at the golf course we can pump the water out of the traps and it fills right back in from the saturated soil. We have slowly been repairing sand traps once the water is gone. It is normally a lengthy process that takes a couple of days to get them all back into normal playing conditions. We will start working on the sand traps early this coming week.

 

Our family of geese recently had one of the young goslings targeted by a bald eagle. The gosling was able to get away from the bald eagle but sustained a broken wing. I talked to a DNR official and it was determined the bird is still able to eat and swim so it is best to let it be and monitor the situation. We will keep an eye on the young goose and hopefully it is able to recover.

Starting on Monday, I will be treating the fairways, tees, green surrounds, and other areas of the golf course with an insecticide to control the presence of grubs. This process takes about eight hours to cover all areas of the golf course. It will help control the grub population and limit the amount of damage caused by skunks digging for grubs. 

 

I have started creating a weekly blog for the golf course which is available on our website under the blog section. These videos are intended to provide some tips on ball mark repair, replacing divots, and updated golf course conditions. I have attached a link below for the last three videos:

 

Yesterday we hosted the 5th annual JP Memorial golf event. This event helps raise scholarship funds for our local students in memory of Jasen Petersen. It is always a successful event with a lot of participation from out of town guests as well as our regular golf crowd. It's great to see all of the support for this event.

It's a very busy time of the golf season and it is going very quickly. We are thankful for each one of you that chooses to spend your recreational time with us at The Muni. We are very appreciative of your support. I am personally very thankful for a dedicated staff that exhibit a lot of pride in the work they do on the grounds or in the clubhouse. I am also grateful for each of the golfers that stop in on a daily basis.

 

Please reach out if you have any questions or would like additional information on a topic. Enjoy the beautiful weather today and please remember to stay hydrated.