Golf course crew begins winter prep

Following a long, hot and dry summer, the Mozingo Lake Golf Course maintenance crew is starting to prepare the course for winter.

The 18-hole municipal course at Mozingo weathered the drought in better shape than some other facilities in the region, since water from the city-owned lake is used to irrigate it.

Access to lake water is easy on City Hall's pocketbook as well, and allowed Maryville to save on the purchase of roughly 50 million gallons of water needed over the summer to run the course's irrigation system.

But, according to course manager Ron Darnell, the ground is still relatively dry compared to previous years.

Darnell said the irrigation system at Mozingo is still running, even though this is typically the week the pipes are drained in order to keep them from freezing.

"For now we're still running the irrigation," Darnell said. "But we'll continue to watch the forecast and get it done before the first hard freeze."

Despite the drought and relatively mild fall weather, Darnell said it's important to wait until the right time to stop watering.

"What we don't want to do is to let the turf roots go into winter dry," Darnell said. "This would cause the roots to desiccate, and would kill off a good portion of turf. We don't want that to happen."

Desiccation — the removal of moisture — combined with below-freezing temperatures amounts to a death sentence for grass.

The Mozingo crew is down to just three full-time employees following the release of seasonal help. So delaying the irrigation system shut-down has allowed Darnell and his staff to get a head start on other winter maintenance work.

All 50 of the rental carts have been serviced and are ready for next year, along with some of the mowers. The rest of the mowers will be finished over the next few weeks.

In a normal year, all of the irrigation work would have already been done. Warm weather is the sole reason why Darnell has been able to hold off.

After last year's unseasonably warm winter, Darnell said he would welcome more of the same.

The fact that golfers were able to access the course throughout much of last winter means that Mozingo brought in more revenue than usual during those months.

"Revenue went up last year, and that's great," Maryville City Manager Greg McDanel said. "But of course when revenue goes up, expenses go up as well. We're hoping we have a winter like last year to keep that revenue going up."

Another task facing Darnell and his crew is setting the course for winter.

Typically, the green cups are set in areas not normally used during the busy summer months.

Moving tees and green cups to low-traffic areas during the winter avoids needless wear on the course and helps the bentgrass survive.

Aside from revenue increases, the course won a tough battle earlier this year against invasive poa annua.

Using a newly approved herbicide, the poa was sprayed and killed off to allow for the preferred bentgrass to come back.

"It worked really well, we were pleased," Darnell said. "We probably won't use it again next year because we don't want to hurt the bentgrass too. We shouldn't have to though, it worked well."

McDanel said some minor renovations have been planned for the clubhouse, with an open house and grand re-opening tentatively scheduled for April.

The city is also working with advertising students at Northwest Missouri State University who are putting together proposals the city could use to better brand and market the course and surrounding park as regional recreation destinations.

The students are to present their ideas to municipal officials early in December.

"We are really excited about this," McDanel said. "We are looking forward to the renovations, and we are excited to see what the students have come up with."