Written by John Mark Adkison
It is not a sport you can play just any- where. After all, you are swinging a metal club and hitting white, little balls as far as you can. The conditions also have to be just right: dry weather, daylight and a wide-open area with meticulously mowed grass with small holes.This has always presented a problem for college golfers who want to work on their swings and putts as often as they can. Fortunately for Harding’s golf teams, they no longer have to wait for a ride to the country club. Now all they have to do is carry their clubs to the Ganus Athletic Center.This semester, the GAC opened a new indoor facility built exclusively for golf players. This golf facility now takes up one-third of the gymnastics room, small for what you might expect for an indoor golfing facility, but efficient. The floor is covered in an artificial grass and pocketed by several holes, perfect for players wanting to enhance their putting skills.”This has been an idea I have had since I became a coach three years ago,” men’s golf coach Dustin Howell said. Howell and junior golfer Bruce McMullen said the facility was primarily funded by tournaments, gifts from alumni and “straight-up saving from the team budget.””I knew this facility was going to become a reality last summer in 2010,” Howell said. “Construction began last fall, and it was finished over [winter] break. I designed the layout of the room and it was installed by Southwest Green in Dallas.”Howell said that his favorite aspect of this new facility was that players could practice any day regardless of weather conditions or daylight.”As a student, I do not have a car or time to make it to the golf course,” McMullen said. “So now I can come in here whenever I need to and a huge benefit is that I can still practice after 7 o’clock at night, using the launch monitor to see results.”The launch monitor is one of the high- tech features the facility offers to players practicing to improve their swing. As demonstrated by junior golfer Evelyn Poteet, a player simply needs to stand in front of the monitor mounted on the wall, swing his or her club next to a long, blue box on the ground and hit the ball against a large, white mat on the wall. Immediately, the launch monitor gives measurements and statistics on how far the ball would have gone, how hard the player swung and what the ball’s spin was.”I believe our facility gives our team several advantages over other teams in our conference,” men’s golf team captain, sophomore Blake Chase, said. “Few schools have such a facility in Division II golf. Also I believe that the facility will help the team get rid of the off season ‘rust,’ and allow us to make quicker progress toward our goals this spring.”Both the men’s and women’s teams use the facility for practice, and the players can now practice on their own techniques daily. “[Coach Howell] did an amazing job of fundraising and making his dream a reality,” women’s golf team’s graduate assistant, Brandi Watkins, said. “And I know that it is hard work, and I know all of the players appreciate it. And this means there are many more great things to comefor the golfing team.”
