The Muni Update
Nov 9, 2025
Good Morning,
This week the majority of our maintenance schedule involved working on landscaping areas and laying sod around the golf course. It's been a long process renovating the landscaping areas and prepping areas for sod. We gained even more ground by the end of the day Friday. We brought the week to a close just in time for a blanket of snow covering the course on Saturday.
On Monday we continued to haul black soil to the landscaping areas of the golf course. The main focus was to prepare the perimeters of the landscaping areas for sod. The majority of the landscaping areas still need to have new black soil added to the interior to better growing conditions for the plant materials that will be added in 2026.
Tuesday morning 7200 square feet of sod was delivered early in the morning. There were 18 rolls of sod, each a total of 400 square feet and a weight of 1100 pounds. Fortunately we had some help from the Park Department with one staff member and their Tool Kat to move the sod rolls around the golf course.
It took a feeling out process but eventually everyone got into a pretty good routing and we moved from one landscaping area on to the next in pretty good time. The majority of these areas were completed with the exception of the #5 blue tee landscaping. This area needs to be completely rebuilt from scratch due to extensive damage and poor soil conditions.
Here is a video that briefly explains the landscaping renovation process in less than 90 seconds:
Several other areas of the golf course were prepped and sod was laid. We cleaned up quite a few areas, added new black soil, and laid sod in all of these areas:
- former landscaping area behind #18 green
- former landscaping area by #2 tees
- the rental cart parking area
- #12 red tee box surrounds
- #2 shelter surrounds
- ball washer stands by the red tee boxes
These areas were all irrigated with a wetting agent included to saturate all of the sod. The only area we did not have time to irrigate was the #2 shelter surrounds. We finished this project late in Friday afternoon as weather conditions were starting to change.
The painting on the tee signs is very close to completion. There is a little bit of touch up painting to be completed on a couple of the signs once the temperatures warm back up next week. It has been a amazing transformation seeing all of the colors shine bright once again.
I also installed the winter turfgrass sensors in the practice green. This is part of a winter turfgrass study that is conducted by the University of Minnesota. The sensors help monitor soil temperatures, gases, and moisture at 0.5", 3", and 6" soil depths of the practice green. Data is recorded in live time and can be monitored online. I also record physical data every Sunday morning and submit it along with photos.
Saturday's winter wonderland left the golf course covered in four inches of heavy wet snow. This caused our tournament to be postponed from today until next Sunday at 10:00 AM. The clubhouse and golf course will be closed until Tuesday when the weather turns back around.
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend. Temperatures will be back on the rise on Tuesday and hopefully we will be playing some fall golf for a little bit longer before Winter finally sets in for the end of the season.
Brian C Mohr
Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer
101 W 5th Street
Spencer Municipal Golf Course
Spencer, Iowa 51301
712-260-5370