Keep on Swinging

We offer an array of ways to make sure your golf game stays sharp in the winter months

What’s your wintertime golf routine? Got a plan for emerging next spring a better golfer? Or do you limit your “workout” to cranking the TV remote to The Golf Channel with your right thumb?
Look, there’s a ton you can do this winter to improve every aspect of your game—without giving up a lot of time on the Barcalounger. Here’s our checklist:

Take those lessons. For lots of us, it’s hard to squeeze in lessons in the summertime. The weekends are jam-packed with family duties, and when you do have some time, you’d rather play a full 18 at a nice course or a quick nine down the street. You’ve got excuses.

Winter’s different. The course is under snow, and there are hundreds of PGA pros thinking to themselves, “We can make him better than he was. We have the technology.” Find one of those pros. Visit the “Instruction” section of PGA.com. Search by zip code—there’s no need to travel far in Chicagoland for a teacher. But do call or e-mail several before you commit to one. While the principles of a good swing are pretty codified, every pro has a different way of describing them and getting you to “get it.” And many have backgrounds in physiology or even psychology, so if you have a trick knee or a lurking case of the yips, you can find the perfect mentor if you’re willing to have some conversations first.

Hit balls, lots of them. Whether you commit to a few lessons or feel you know it all already, hit a golf dome or a heated outdoor driving range or one of the countless shot-simulator facilities around Chicagoland. And we don’t mean once—we mean often. Once every other week will at least enable you to start up in April without stiffness, risk of injury or nasty sore muscles the next day. What’s more, you’ll groove whatever good habits your pro is impressing upon you. The array of winter golf facilities in the area is stunning. Here are some suggestions:

White Pines Golf Dome, Bensenville, whitepinesgolfdome.com, 630-422-1060. This dome is as big as two football fields side-by-side, and it has just about everything you’d need: 50 hitting bays in a climate-controlled environment, a slew of award-winning teaching pros, pro-quality clubs you can use if you’re thinking about a purchase, and contoured putting greens. Oh, and there are food and TVs in case you’re done with practice and “Big Break” is on. If you’re skeptical about putting on an artificial surface, don’t be: Its consistency encourages you to concentrate on mechanics and touch. Look, if Paul Stankowski could prepare for The Masters by putting on his concrete garage floor—he putted really well at Augusta that year—you’ll do just fine here on the White Pines Golf Dome’s very natural turf.

Play 18 Chicago, downtown Chicago, play18chicago.com, 312-251-0540. Just a couple blocks from Millennium Park, this golfer’s oasis is a serious training facility with a country club-style lounge for good measure. It sports shot simulators with lots of courses programmed in and driving bays with swing-analysis technology, plus expert golf instruction, party/banquet capabilities and the like. It’s a little more expensive than your typical suburban golf dome ($50 an hour in the PGA Tour shot simulators, $25 for an hour in the driving bays, $15 for 30 minutes), but the online reviews so far are stellar for the technology, the ambiance and the instruction. Reservations are required for certain hours of the day—just like at a real course.
For a more mid-priced experience with the very same PGA Tour technology, try Partner Golf School at 6615 W. Irving Park Road in Chicago, 773-286-2060, at $35 an hour.

GolfTec, GolfTec.com, has nine Chicagoland locations (and dozens nationwide) and has been pushing and refining its motion-sensor approach to swing training since Tiger Woods was still a teenager. An independent golf consultancy says GolfTec gives 20 percent of the lessons annually in the U.S., which means it employs a lot of teachers and probably has one you’re going to mesh with. It also offers club-fitting and custom clubmaking services.

Links & Tees Golf Dome in Addison, 630-458-2660, is part of a large indoor/outdoor practice facility that Golf Range Magazine named one of its top 100 in the U.S. If you want to make this the center of your wintertime improvement plan, it’s got everything you need: a double-decker indoor driving range with a slew of options, from the simple (30 minutes/$12 weekdays) to the exhaustive (unlimited use every day during the cold season/$1,200), plus lots of discount plans. There are also at least half a dozen PGA and LPGA teaching pros available, which gives you one less excuse not to have an expert break you down and build you up better than ever. Hey, it worked for Tiger once, and it might again.

These are by no means the only indoor facilities in Chicagoland. Consider Indoor Golf Links of America in Orland Park, (708) 403-4040, www.indoorgolflinks.net, and The Golf Dome at Green Garden in Frankfort, (815) 469-3350, www.greengardencc.com, as well as others. The Diversey Driving Range on Lake Shore Drive in the city has heated bays, in case you’re an outdoor purist. In fact, if you’re an outdoor purist, keep an eye on municipal courses everywhere, starting with topnotch courses like Cog Hill, which make a point of opening up when the weather’s firmly above freezing. There are Chicagoland golfers who make a point of golfing in each month of the year. Have you got the stones?

Keep on putting. Back inside, here are a few things you can do right in your own living room. The Boomerang Putting Pro, BoomGolf.com, $35, is an intriguing, inexpensive putting aid. It’s basically a ramp with a very unforgiving hole at the top. This means that your distance control has to be perfect, which is convenient, given how little thought some of us give to distance and pace as we fixate on the line of our putt. The No Bogey Perfect Practice Cup, NoBogey.com, $15, has a similar concept without the ramp. While it’s not as radically challenging as the Putting Pro, it’s more true to the game in some ways (the lip is contoured to reward ball speed that’s ideal in real putting conditions), and it’s more challenging regarding your line.

Keep on reading. And now the part of your training that you can do in the Barcalounger: Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible. Yeah, it’s been out for a long time and sold a lot of copies, but have you read it? No? Don’t be scared off by its size or the solemnity of its title. And don’t think you have to read it cover-to-cover, straight through. As with any good bible, you can dip in anywhere and find enlightenment; the sections on how we routinely ignore our better judgment and line up putts wrong is a mind-blower and worth the $30 price tag. You might just win that money back in your first round this spring with your buddies. CG