News

Good Morning,

 

Aerification of the golf greens started on Monday morning as the sun started to rise. All of the greens were aerified with solid 1/2" tines to an approximate depth of eight inches. I finished deep tining the last green at 6:00 PM. We experienced quite a few mechanical issues which resulted in the aerification process being extended into Tuesday morning.

After the aerification was completed each green was rolled multiple times to help smooth out any tufts of grass or imperfections. Then the greens were double mowed to give us a nice putting surface with very little disruption. We finished our final four greens on Tuesday morning and had the course ready for golfers pretty early in the morning. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and we had no golfers for the day.

This past week I applied for our irrigation extension with the Iowa DNR and received approval at the end of the week. The permit extension will allow irrigation to occur through the month of December at a total flow of no more than 4,000,000 gallons of water. Generally this extension takes us well into the month of November before we winterize the system. 

Our annual permit allows irrigation from April 1 thru the month of October. We are regulated to use no more than 40,000,000 gallons of water to irrigate the golf course during this time frame. We are also regulated to pump no more than 26,500,000 gallons of water from our well into the irrigation pond. Fortunately we are not close to any of these totals for the 2025 season.

 

Staff has continued to work on the landscaping renovation project. We have removed the majority of existing plant materials and started adding the landscaping blocks across the front of each bed. These front blocks will end up being very close to ground level after we add soil inside the landscaping beds and sod around the perimeter. 

 

 

To date holes #1, #2, and #10 have the landscaping blocks completed and black soil has been added tapering from the back to the front. We still need to cut some existing edges of the landscaping blocks and add black soil to the remaining landscaping areas. Sod will be added around the perimeters in the next week or two, depending on the sod delivery date.  

The landscaping area behind #18 green has been removed. We still need to remove the two amur maple tree stumps and prepare the area for dormant seeding. We had a lot of difficulty with this landscaping area over the years and the maple trees were in pretty poor shape. This led to the decision for removal.

We still need to remove the landscaping area to the east of #2 green. This will be completed in the same manner as the one behind #18 green. Hopefully this process is completed early next week and we can start preparing both areas for seeding.

 

The last of the tee signs have been painted on holes #1-#18. It wasn't the best weather conditions for painting this week but it was nice to gain a little ground. The golf course sign by the practice greens and the 19th hole are the last two signs that will be painted. These signs all look amazing and it will be nice to have the final two completed.

Next week we will continue to work on quite a few of our scheduled projects. There is still a lot of work to get done so hopefully the weather continues for golfers and our staff. Please reach out if you have any questions or need additional information on any topics. Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.