The Muni Update
Apr 6, 2025
Good Morning,
The week started off with a couple inches of snow covering the entire golf course. Rainfall followed with colder temperatures. The precipitation is great for the golf course but not so much for golfers. The weather looks a little bit nicer for our tournament today then returns to colder temperatures for a couple of days. By the middle of next week we should see sunshine and temperatures rising.
There is still some frost in the ground at the golf course, which results in standing water in some areas. Overall, the golf course has progressed very nicely even though we have not experienced very many warmer nights. In the timeframe of one week the fairways have gone from dormant brown in color to shades of green popping up everywhere. By the time we get past the middle of the upcoming week the grass should start to grow a little bit.
Monday we started working on sand traps removing rocks and other debris. We battled the rain and colder temperatures but completed approximately two thirds of the sand traps. Small rocks were removed within the sand as well as larger rocks in the clay soil underneath the sand. We will continue this process early next week.
This past week we mowed collars and tees for the second time of the season. Greens were mowed on Friday for the first time of the season. Next week we will start mowing fairways and our greens will also be mowed a couple of times. Soil temperatures need to increase before we start mowing regularly. In accordance with our Quality Standards, May is the month we start implementing normal maintenance practices.
This upcoming week staff will go through each individual station to adjust nozzles and repair any necessary issues.Irrigation heads on the greens and surrounds will be adjusted for proper distance, on each station, to better control water distribution and reduce puddling. Last fall we completed over 100 irrigation repairs to valves, lateral lines, and solenoids. The repairs will help reduce the amount of standing water in valve boxes and allow us to maintain pressure in the system while not in use. We should see a significant improvement in our water management practices as well as meeting the mitigation concerns of FEMA in our pumphouse.
Our Iowa DNR irrigation permit allows us to use close to 40 million gallons of water from April 1 thru the month of October. Permits are required for any extension in irrigation past the month of October or if we need additional water during the season. The Muni has never gone over the allotted water amount in a season but we regularly receive a permit to operate the irrigation system past the month of October.
At the March golf board meeting we discussed different food options to offer our golfers. I attended a food show on Tuesday and have met with Northern Lights to get some additional ideas for food items in the clubhouse. We will be selling Pasquale’s Pizzas, breakfast sandwiches, grilled chicken breasts, hamburgers, hot dogs, polish sausage, snack cakes, ice cream treats, and our current snack items. We have a limited kitchen in the clubhouse so our options need to revolve around our ability to provide food options. We will have signs made for the clubhouse, promoting all our food items before the end of the month. I still need to get in touch with The Butchery to discuss options they could provide but these are most likely going to be $10 and above.
The Muni has our first tournament of the season scheduled today. There are 30 teams registered and it looks like a pretty nice day. A reminder to our golfers to purchase your 2025 season passes to get included in the drawing for our Virtual Membership Drive. The deadline is April 19th.
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend. Please reach out with any questions or the need for additional information on a topic. Golf season is here and hopefully Mother Nature cooperates in 2025.
Brian C Mohr
Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer
101 W 5th Street
Spencer Municipal Golf Course
Spencer, Iowa 51301
712-260-5370