Off Season Activities for Golfers Chipping net… $ 20.00 Electric putting cup $ 42.00 Swing Trainer $ 80.00 Practice mat $ 500.00 Picking up where you left off last season…. Priceless. If you live in a climate where golf is something that can only be seen on television for 4 months of the year, then off-season activity is a must. If you have any illusions of maintaining what you worked on the entire summer, you need to be thinking about a winter practice schedule. There are numerous solutions that are offered by many of the major golf vendors. For the price of 18 holes, a cart, four lost golf balls, and one expensive but terrible tasting cigar you pretend to enjoy, you can go to the store or online and bring home a variety of indoor practice aids that should keep you busy the majority of the winter. All cheesy commercial references aside, there really are a number of gimmick solutions that have proven to be classics. One such favorite is the wiffle ball golf ball. They are relatively inexpensive (about $3.00 for 6), and are a great way to get the feel of a swing while indoors but with out all the hassle of ducking punches from either your landlord or your spouse due to their anger at a broken window or damaged drywall. Many people have said that using a wiffle ball through the indoor months is a great way to gain confidence in your chipping game. The ability to chip a wiffle ball over a dining room table and land it on a sofa cushion should make a 50 yard fairway approach with one tiny 10 foot bunker between you and the green a piece of cake. Over 40% of the strokes on a course are taken on the green. The carpet in your office or in your basement may not be green but during the winter months it should serve well enough to practice on. Most businesses have what is called business carpet. It has a very similar feel and length to Bent or Bermuda grass (the primary types of grass used on American greens). Putting games can be very entertaining as well as educational. When putting on carpet it is important to keep in mind that you should always use proper form. It would be more detrimental to develop a whole heard of bad habits than to never have touched your putter all winter long. Make the games interesting. When I was in college I would spend my break time at work having a putting contest with coworkers. We would draw a tee box on the ground with the imaginary line given off by the toe of a shoe, and then find destinations for the ball that were always impossible to hit in one stroke. Usually it consisted of going around a drinking fountain, past a certain row of chairs, through a doorway in to a different room, down two steps and then into a cup that could only be entered from the backside. If you were religious about chipping wiffle balls and putting on carpet during the off season, then when the season starts up again you should have a good muscle memory formed for over 70% of your strokes. But what will happen to you in the tee box if you don’t get in any off-season activity that prepares you? Many golfers seek the refuge of the indoor driving range. They are a relatively new phenomenon but are catching on quickly. The main difference at the indoor driving range is that the rates are based upon time instead of by quantity of balls. Instead of buying a small medium or large bucket of balls, you pay for the hour that you have been hitting. Our research has seen price ranges anywhere from $5.00 per half and hour up to $15 per half an hour. This web site will eventually contain a listing of all of the local indoor driving ranges but for now, we recommend you look the phone book. With putting, chipping, and driving taken care of, your short, middle, and long game should not be disastrous when you begin again in the spring. If you are the type of person who puts a lot of time and pride into their game during the summer, you may realize that just hitting shots may not be enough to keep the edge. You may want to consider a virtual golf simulator. This is a great melding of sport and technology. We do not recommend that you give up going out to an actual course any time soon, but when you can't get out on the course, this is definitely the next best thing. These golf simulators offer tee times, leagues, and competitive play. USGolfer is gathering a listing of courses and places that feature the simulators, but this feature is currently under construction. Again, check your local yellow pages in the mean time. They are gaining popularity and most likely there will be one not far from where you live. Hopefully this article has given you some suggestions and encouragement to keep up your skills during the colder months. Don’t let your hard work from one season to the next go to waste. Hopefully, you will get more enjoyment out of the game and spend less time swearing at your clubs if you get in some maintenance on your game. 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