Good Morning,
Heavy rainfall totals of 2.10 inches from Monday through Wednesday left the golf course completely saturated with plenty of standing water. This placed the cart path overlay project on hold until Tuesday, November 10 at the soonest. I will evaluate the golf course condition this afternoon and meet with the engineer and contractor on Monday to decide on the upcoming work schedule.
Because the golf course is completely saturated, we are concerned about equipment getting stuck or causing increased turf damage. The warmer temperatures and sunshine will hopefully dry things out substantially so we can continue the project. Our plan is to complete the new overlays on holes #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7 before moving to the lower areas of the south end of the course.
Our staff aerified the traffic routes for the first couple of days this week. We also used two asphalt rollers from Blacktop Services to level these areas. The aerification and rolling alleviate compaction caused by 60,000-pound dump trucks driving across the golf course. There has been a lot of progress with this repair process. I anticipate further recovery when the frost leaves the ground in the Spring of 2027.
We also continued to clean up the edges of the new cart path overlays. Standing windrows of black soil were raked back to the edge of the cart path surfaces. Sod was laid in these areas to help improve playing conditions for golf cart traffic once we are open again.
We also added asphalt millings to some severe cart path edges to eliminate future safety concerns for cart traffic. These high edges form when the asphalt paver turns around the contours of the cart path layout. The back end of the machine tends to lift which creates a little higher edge than anticipated. As the project has progressed, this issue has improved significantly.
There was a lot of standing water near some of the new cart paths which is no different than before this project. The worst area is by the tees on hole number six. We used a pump and generator to remove this standing water, eliminating the possibility of damage to the cart paths. This will be a continued maintenance practice.
The clean up process by our staff is extensive and time consuming. Our main goal is to return the course to safe driving conditions for cart traffic. We will have much more repair work to complete once we start on the south end of the course because the soil conditions there are more saturated compared to the start of the project.
The golf course will remain closed until the cart path project is completed. The old cart paths are completely torn up in preparation for the overlay and are currently unsafe for golfers. There is also a lot of soil and sod lying along the sides of these paths from the box blade and brush preparing them for asphalt.
I anticipate three days of work to finish the project if everything goes smoothly. If we can start on Tuesday, hopefully we can have the golf course open for next weekend. We appreciate your patience while we complete this improvement for our golf course. It needs to be completed properly so we can enjoy the results for many years.
Again, this project is funded by hotel/motel tax as intended. No property tax dollars are being used for this project. The golf course operations are also under an enterprise fund, meaning our expenses are covered by our revenues without using tax dollars from our citizens.
The greens were aerified mid-October and are recovering nicely. There are still signs of the small aeration holes, but they are recovering as expected. This upcoming week’s weather should definitely help them finish filling in completely. I will spray the greens with a wetting agent and fungicide today or tomorrow.
Staff has also been busy pruning the redtwig dogwood bushes along the out of bounds on holes #14 and #15. This pruning practice is completed annually at this time of the season. This pruning practice helps us maintain these areas more efficiently and has a lesser impact on slowing down play on the golf course.
The four person best shot scheduled for this morning has been postponed until November 15 at 10:00 AM. Please reach out with any questions. Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.
Brian C Mohr
Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer
101 W 5th Street
Spencer Municipal Golf Course
Spencer, Iowa 51301