Rookie on the Green

I headed to the golf course this afternoon for some quality time with putting and chipping, but the Minneapolis weather was anything but quality.  The wind was blowing so hard it nearly moved me during my setup — the balls I hit into the wind went nowhere!  And then it started to rain.  I got in one round of practice chip shots using my newly acquired Golftec chipping techniques and one round of putts.  Call me a fair weather golfer, but staying out there in the rain just wouldn’t have been productive.  Oh well, I gave it a try.  Tomorrow is supposed to be back up in the 60s, much better than today’s 46 degrees/ “feels like 38″ with 35 mph gusts.  I’ll head back to the range for practice under more conducive conditions.

Today we headed out to the Braemar Golf Dome in Edina, MN, to get in some mid-winter practice.  This was the first time I’d hit balls in a dome before.  According to the website, Braemar’s dome is “the largest and longest-hitting in the Twin Cities area with 46 tee areas on two levels.”   The prices aren’t bad — $10.50 for a half hour on a tee with unlimited balls (that’s on weekends) and $7.50 per bucket during the week.  Two people can share a tee, so Matt and I alternated on one tee and it worked well to have short breaks between each hitting session.

It’s pretty close quarters on the tees.  You can’t take your golf bag in, so you have to just carry in the clubs you want to hit.  Definitely a great way to get some practice in while the weather outside is so nasty.  I’m sure we’ll go back quite a few times before spring arrives.  The picture’s a little blurry, but here I am hitting some balls.