Cold weather colleges and golf

Tugu · August 27

Just been wondering how schools like Northwestern or Notre Dame manage to keep their program's results competitive with schools based in locales where the climate is more conducive to year round golf?

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Llortamaisey · August 27

A long time ago in galaxy far far away, I was fortunate enough to play at a D1 power conference program that would get pretty cold in the winter. During the cold months we had a few options to keep our game as sharp as possible. Our football program had an indoor practice facility that we could convert into a short range with a net. There was a local range with heaters in the hitting bays. Those bays would get so hot we would wear short sleeves and shorts under our sweats and take the sweats off once the heaters were cranked up. Only problem was when the wind would whip through the range and blow directly into your bay, like getting hit with Mr. Freeze’s blaster.

The winter time was also a time where we would focus a lot on strength and conditioning. Fortunately other than a few tournaments in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and the Palmas Del Mar Intercollegiate, we didn’t have many tournaments between November and March. In fact, typically we had no tournaments between November and January.

These days most of the programs in northern climates have indoor hitting bays with all the tech, indoor putting greens, as well as access to golf facilities with enclosed hitting bays that hit out into a range where you can see the ball flight. These kids are so good nowadays, it’s not hard to keep a Ferrari tuned up.

kekoa · August 27

Yup, I'd say they have the means to build facilities that allow for practice when the weather isn't good. They can still hit balls from covered heated bays, chip, and putt. If they need to play they I'm sure the coach is willing to travel with the starting lineup to find better weather.

MahalNeneng · August 30

Most of the larger programs have indoor facilities and take plenty of training trips.

Tugu · August 31

10 hours ago, MahalNeneng said:

Most of the larger programs have indoor facilities and take plenty of training trips.

Dumont De Chassart, won his Korn Ferry debut this year and then lost in a playoff in the next event, went here.

blaird · September 6

Has anyone seen the indoor ranges? Saw something on social media, looked to be 150-200 yards from where the person was hitting to the back of the building. Looks like they had a protective net so balls wouldnt ricochet back or hit the wall and there were some colored targets hanging up as well. It looked really cool and would be a cool option for the winter or summer.

Petethreeput · September 7

I am in MT and the girls play outdoors until the snow flies. They have two trackman and hit balls into a snow covered range from covered, heated hitting bays. They do go to tournaments in AZ Feb/March as well.

My buddy works in the PSU PGM program and they have an area with 6 launch monitors and the kids hit balls in there all winter. Same thing with tournaments.