Fore!...feet of snow presents a challenge for local golfers
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Chinook senior Carrie Hofer follows through on the driving simulator. The series of dots in the center of the screen show where he ball would have landed on the fairway and how far it went. Hofer is a senior at CHS and placed sixth in last year's state meet.
Jeff Finley had a golf simulator for several years in a building adjacent to the old "Blaine County Journal" office on Indiana. He and I discussed doing a story about the simulator, but it had some malfunction, then the paper moved and the simulator went off my radar.
A couple of weeks ago Finley said, "Hey, as soon as a new part arrives the Chinook golf team will be using the simulator to practice." That got me thinking about the challenges of a long winter and how it affects spring sports for local high schoolers.
Years ago a student at the University of North Dakota told me, "We play 40-40 golf out here. If the wind is below 40 miles per hour and the temperature is above 40 degrees, we play." I wondered if that was how it worked for local students getting ready for golfing competition during a cold spring in Montana.
"Look around but don't
get hit by a ball"
That was the admonition CHS Golf Coach Mike Seymour gave me. I called to see if I could watch some of the indoor practice and talk to the players. Seymour was very accommodating, as were the players, about sharing how this spring has created some challenges for getting ready for the golf season.
Seymour is assisted this year by Coach Brent Schellin, an avid local golfer, and Matt Frye, a first year volunteer and coach. Seymour said he started the golf program in 1995 and, except for a couple of years, has been the golf coach since the start. He said there have been other years when the team could not practice outside at the start of the golf season. And, a few times the team used the simulator when it was still set up in the building downtown. "This year," he explained, "Jeff and I moved the simulator the week before to the auditorium at the high school."
The coaches had set up four stations: a putting green; a chipping net; a place to drive 'soft' balls into the stage curtain and the driving range simulator. Truthfully, the simulator looked like a tent at a gravesite. But, beyond appearance it was all bells and whistles and electronic feedback. Coach Schellin was working with senior golfer Brandon Paulson at the simulator.
Once the ball is situated, relevant settings are made on a large cabinet shaped device with a bunch of dials and gages that looks like a prop from a 1940's Frankenstein movie. The golfer hits a real ball, the simulator reads the distance, angle and how the head of the club connected to the ball. It was virtually instant feedback, quicker than with a real swing trying to guess how many yards you hit on a real course.
Season already has had
postponed meets
Seymour said several meets have already been postponed or rescheduled because of weather. This puts pressure on golfers who will be trying to qualify for the state meet in early May.
A player can play in as many as 12 meets in a season. Seymour added, "Often organizers will double up on rescheduled meets on the same day, that will cut down on the number of meets a player can participate in."
This photo of the Chinook golf course tells the tale as to why the CHS golf team is practicing inside this year. CHS Coach Mike Seymour is concerned that the local school will not be able to host their scheduled tournament on May 1. With all the snow still on the course he's worried that the course will be too wet for play.
Coach Seymour had another concern about this season. "We're in jeopardy of not being able to host our meet. Ours is the first Saturday in May, the last weekend before the state tournament. The weather and the condition of our course could still be a factor." He noted the Chinook course still had a lot of snow on it and it was a course that took some time to adequately drain for play.
A quick drive out to the golf course verified the coach's assessment. There were still major drifts and as the warmup progressed water was starting to pool in low areas.
The first hiccup I heard with a spring sports team was when a fellow coffee drinker told his granddaughter had a tennis match a couple of weeks ago and they had to shovel the snow off the courts to play. Then, there's track and field practice with a very snowy and likely flooded area for both practice and competition. At least you can run inside while golfing inside can be dangerous.
So, here's to all the spring teams coping with a lingering winter. Keep this quote from an old poem by English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley: "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" Winter's come, let's hope spring is not far behind.
