The Muni Update
The Muni Update
As we near this time of the season the conversations begin in regard to the presence of dandelions. They have started appearing this past week and I am scheduled to start treating the golf course in about one week. There will be a pre-emergent sprayed to control crabgrass from germinating on fairways, tees, green surrounds, and some areas of the rough. This treatment is done annually when soil temperatures near 55 degrees.
Also, the entire golf course will be sprayed for weed control. This process is also done on an annual basis and all 164 acres of the golf course are treated. There are definitely weather restrictions to be able to safely spray and they include no threat of rain, winds less than 10 mph, and sunshine. Obviously we can’t control the weather but there is no spraying during the wind or rain conditions per the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. It takes approximately one hour to spray one tank of herbicide and a total of 24 tanks to treat the golf course.
The pumphouse upgrade has been completed during the off season of the golf course. There is a new 75 HP vertical turbine pump that provides the water for the system. There is also a small submersible pump that maintains the pressure in the system. Saturday a new flow sensor will be installed and programmed to replace the one damaged from the flood. The efficiency of the new pumphouse will allow better irrigation control as well as conservation of water. The only remaining addition is the installation of a pressure relief valve.
Our water permit with the Iowa DNR allows us to irrigate from April 1 thru the month of October annually. An extension is usually granted for us to extend irrigation past the month of October each season. We are allowed to flow approximately 40,000,000 million gallons of water during this time frame. On a busy night of irrigation we put 450,000 gallons of water on the golf course. During times of drought it becomes essential to evaluate our water totals on a regular basis so we don’t exceed this amount.
Staff went through the entire irrigation system last fall completing numerous repairs. We had a lot of debris enter the system when our pumphouse flooded last year. There still are valves where we discover debris in the diaphragms which won’t allow the valve to close properly and the station runs all night long. We continue to monitor and address any issues on a daily basis so they can be dealt with in a timely manner.
There was an issue with an irrigation main line behind #1 green on Saturday morning. This was caused by a pressure issue in the pumphouse due to a damaged flow sensor. This will be repaired on Monday and the flow sensor will be replaced as well.
So far this Spring we have had more nights below freezing temperatures than nights with temperatures over 50 degrees. Add in basically zero snow cover from the winter months which creates a lot of stress for the bentgrass greens. They are very slow to come around this year and don’t have a very nice color right now. We applied a granular fertilizer this past week to help the healing process once our soil temperatures rise. We have also been doing hand topdressing in areas that were repaired last season to help them fill in better. Once the temperatures rise, the grass will start growing rapidly and hopefully we see a full recovery in some of the stressed areas. We will also start mowing all areas of the course on a daily basis at that time. Overall, the golf course is in a lot nicer condition than I expected coming through the winter months.
In the next couple of weeks we will start working on the landscaping areas around the golf course. All landscaping near the tee boxes will be completely renovated. The front landscape blocks will be removed as will the existing rock and weed barrier. By removing the front landscaping blocks we hope to improve drainage in some of the problematic areas of the golf course. The removal of rock, weed barrier, and existing plant materials will all be done manually and will take a lot of time. I hope to complete a couple of landscaping areas this Spring and the rest will be completed during the summer, minus the plant materials which will be done in early August.
The staff on the maintenance team will remain the same for 2025. The clubhouse staff lost a few employees from 2024 and we have a handful of new team members already starting and others not quite on board yet. I am very thankful for all of the staff that returns each season. They all do a great job and are a direct result of the success we have at The Muni. I am also excited to have new staff coming on board and have full confidence they will each be a valuable asset to our team.
The majority of our staff have other full time jobs and are not all available to cover all the different shifts. In the next couple of weeks we will have more people available to work in the clubhouse as well as operate the beverage cart on a regular basis. The beverage cart will generally plan to make a couple of trips around the course and also be available to take drinks out on the course when they are called into the clubhouse by players.