Until a few nights ago, I would have said, “the only thing worse than hitting golf balls off plastic mats inside a 70-yard long plastic bubble is driving over there to watch people do it.”
My neighbors and some of their friends have been hitting balls at the Braemar Golf Dome nearly every Monday evening for years. About two years ago, they invited my wife Karen and me to join them. We usually go if we’re free that night . . . and it’s fine, it’s OK . . . but I’ve never really taken to it in the way they have. In fact, I enjoy their tradition of going out to dinner with the group of friends afterward more than the golf-like part of the evening.
I had back surgery in November and I’m not supposed to do anything remotely like swinging a golf club until April. But Mike’s been telling me about the new technology Braemar installed last fall. It’s the same thing you see on TV golf tournaments. “TopTracer provides golfers with an array of data for their swing from every club in their bag,” according to their website. Braemar claims to be the only facility in Minnesota that has these gizmos. So I decided to go over there and watch.
I have to admit that I was impressed. I think it could really change the plastic bubble experience. Before, you’d whack balls into the far wall and the ultimate flight and destination of anything more than a wedge was a mystery. Now you can do a bunch of different things, from measuring your average distance and direction with each club to “playing” one of several famous courses on the simulator.
I’m not going to say it’s golf. There’s no real grass, no wind, no rain, the ball still only flies 70 yards and you don’t really putt when playing the simulated courses. But it approximates golf enough for me to wish I could give it a try this winter.
I used to tell scoffing friends that live in warm places that hitting balls in a golf dome, “is better than nothing”. This tech upgrade seems way better than nothing. I think it’s getting pretty darn close to being something.
And I have to wait until next winter to enjoy it.
