Imagine South Dakota State University hoops star Nate Wolters not having a gym to workout in over the offseason.

He might get a little rusty.

That’s how things were for the SDSU men’s and women’s golf teams, according to head coach Jared Baszler, due to unfavorable golf weather in Brookings most of the school year.

“We used to basically shut down for two months out of the year. Two hitting mats and a simple net gets boring,” Baszler said.

Thanks to a new $62,000 indoor facility on the south side of Frost Arena, not anymore.

“One of the first questions a recruit usually asks is how many months a year they can golf (in Brookings). From now on I’m gonna say 12 … anything you can do outside you can do in here,” Baszler said.

Baszler, who’s been coaching at SDSU since 2003, always had the idea of an indoor golf facility so his teams could still hone their skills while the courses were under a few feet of snow.

About two years ago, a few of the golfers’ parents approached him and got the ball rolling on fundraising for the project. He rounded up support from former Jackrabbit golfers, alumni, other parents of current golfers and just about anyone that ever had any connection to the SDSU golf program.

“Not only did we raise a lot of money, we raised enough money and we didn’t have to cut any corners with this facility,” Baszler said.

Needless to say he did a good job. A great job. The first phase of the Jacks’ new indoor golf facility was the 900 square-foot (48 x 20 feet) putting and chipping area.  After $35,000 and some good old-fashioned labor (a wall had to be knocked out), phase one was completed over winter break.  SynLawn, an aritificial grass company, installed the indoor putting green in less than two days.

Phase two happened much quicker than expected.

“We knew we wanted to do a simulator next and we left some space in our room for it,” Baszler said, “We had some donors who really stepped up and stepped up big. So instead of phase two taking two years, it only took a couple months.”

The simulator is like Wii Golf on steroids with a little higher price tag (around $32,000). Simply tee up the ball, pull out the club of choice and pick from a variety of courses or take to the driving range.

One of the biggest advantages of the simulator is the ‘launch monitor’, a portable black box which can be used indoors or out on the course and keeps data on every swing of every golfer for later analysis.  Like watching film for golfers, the launch monitor records data such as club head speed, carry distance, angle of attack, ball spin, etc.  The launch monitor and simulator setup were purchased from Foresight Sports – a leader in the launch monitor sector of the golf industry.

And one could argue the investment has already paid dividends: the men’s team set the lowest 54-hole score in school history at the Jackrabbit Invitational, the first meet since the fall season, after roughly two months with the putting and chipping area alone.

What’s the verdict?

“It has definitely helped. Looking at our stats from [the Jackrabbit Invitational], our players averaged less putts per round than we did last year and I have noticed their short game has improved overall.  I would say it’s paid off so far,” stated Baszler.

“[The simulator's] really cool. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find players who don’t want to come in here all day, every day. We’ll have to divvy up the times because this is gonna be a lot of fun,” junior Hudson Carpenter said.

From an outsider’s prospective, the facility no-doubt helps solidify SDSU as a Division I golf program, even if it’s required some thinking outside the box. Baszler said not many teams in the upper-Midwest, if any, have anything like this unique facility.

“”If you would’ve told me a year ago that we’d have this [facility], I would’ve told you you’re crazy,” Baszler said.

The coach no longer has to tell his golfers to go in and hit. They’re usually there already, some even sleeping overnight at the facility.

“The best take-away for me has been the reaction on the kids’ faces when they saw the simulator, when they saw the putting green in January — it’s putting chills down my spine right now. It’s pretty neat. They don’t feel like they’re so rusty, they don’t feel like they’re having to play catch-up with the rest of the country,” Baszler said.

SDSU Indoor Golf practice facility Before

SDSU Indoor Golf practice facility After

Click here to read the full story online

“Extra’s” Mario Lopez and Maria Menounos continued their February Face-Off race — this time being a golf challenge as the two hosts squared off on a Dave Pelz GreenMaker by SYNLawn Golf. The pair had a little “Extra” help from PGA golf pros Jesper Parnevik and James Hahn. Check out the video below to see how they did!

CLICK HERE for more info about the Dave Pelz GreenMaker
by SYNLawn Golf

THANK YOU to “Extra” TV, the cast and crew and everyone behind the scenes who helped make this happen!

TONIGHT tune into “Extra” TV to watch hosts Mario Lopez and Maria Menounos compete in a new challenge against PGA Pro’s on our Dave Pelz GreenMaker Putting Green!

Click to check your local listings

In the meantime, here’s a clip of their last challenge as Mario and Maria face off with the “Dog Challenge”. Watch to see who wins and to see how the scores are adding up!

(PALM DESERT, California) – Dominic Nappi found a niche’ in the burgeoning trend toward installing synthetic backyard putting greens and synthetic residential landscape turf and founded Back Nine Greens, one of the country’s largest installers of synthetic putting green systems and synthetic landscape turf.

Since 1997, the Palm Desert company has established itself as the premier installation company for these types of projects.

Now, the company is announcing a new partnership with the world’s largest manufacturer of synthetic turf for putting greens and residential applications. SYNLawn is a Dalton, Georgia-based company, which is closely aligned with AstroTurf, the inventor of the synthetic turf industry.

“By working together with SYNLawn, this allows us to provide superior workmanship, extraordinary service, and professional integrity,” said Nappi. “Our goal was to partner with the largest and best manufacturer of synthetic turf and that led us to SYNLawn. SYNLawn’s reputation for innovation in the synthetic turf industry and excellence in production and manufacturing will enhance our business greatly.”

Nappi and his team came into the business on the leading edge of the trend and have continued to grow and expand. From small, three-hole backyard greens, to more expansive surfaces intended for serious golfers, their market continues to grow.

“This partnership allows us to feature our products in the installations of one of the world’s foremost experts in creating a realistic, high-performance putting green,” said George Neagle, Vice President of Sales and Marketing with SYNLawn. “Customers will have the SYNLawn product quality and components installed with the best craftsmanship.”

The company has installed systems for some very well-known clients, including the NFL’s Terrell Davis, former MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberoth, golfing legend Ken Venturi, actor Mark Wahlberg, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden, and baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench.

SYNLawn has also enhanced its reputation and product line by partnering with short game guru Dave Pelz to help design and enhance product offerings alongside the Pelz Golf Institute.

The SYNLawn systems now offered by Back Nine Greens will provide the most authentic experience for every part of the game. The greens will feature nylon fibers that allow for smooth, true putts, as well as lifelike fringe and collar turf for developing the game around the green.

Each green is custom-designed and installed by Back Nine Greens, which is part of SYNLawn’s exclusive Greenmaster installation program.

Back Nine Greens will also carry SYNLawn products for residential and landscape installation, playgrounds, pet areas, and roof decks. Back Nine Greens will service Imperial, Orange, and Riverside Counties.

Back Nine Greens is located in Palm Desert and can be reached at (800) 583-6619

About SYNLawn:

SYNLawn is the industry innovator on synthetic grass. Their lush and livable synthetic grass systems have transformed the way synthetic grass is used, producing the most advanced and performance oriented putting surfaces and synthetic landscaping solutions in the market. SYNLawn uses exclusive technologies to produce unmatched solutions for synthetic landscape, golf, pet and playground systems. SYNLawn’s grass products are 100% recyclable and lead compliant. As the only vertically integrated manufacturer/installer in the business, SYNLawn delivers customers the highest quality artificial grass products at a competitive price with the most genuine industry warranty. With the company’s rapid expansion, SYNLawn has 35 locations now open in the United States and Canada. To learn more visit www.SYNLawn.com.

Submitted by Cherokee Estate Dalton Daily Citizen

Dalton, GA — The annual Georgia Sheriffs Cherokee Estate Golf Tournament, sponsored by AstroTurf / SYNLawn, is a great way to have fun and support a worthwhile northwest Georgia tradition.

This year’s tournament is Friday, Aug. 24, at Nob North Golf Course. Shotgun starts will be at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Tournament Director Eddie Brooker says team sponsorships are still available. Cost for a team is $500 and includes 19 holes, a cart, lunch and tournament favors.

In addition, individuals or teams may purchase the ability to use red tees and have mulligans. For $80 you can buy eight mulligans and four red tees. First, second and third place prizes will be awarded.

Nikita Jordan, executive director of Cherokee Estate, said the tournament is an important fundraiser for the girls’ home.

“In addition to helping with daily expenses, the tournament supports a lot of the activities and community involvement for our children such as dance classes, gymnastics and other extracurricular activities,” Jordan said.

The youth home was originally known as Cherokee Boys Estate. Local community leaders have long taken a special interest in the home. Existing cottages, a gym, a chapel and much more are the result of the generosity of local individuals and organizations.

As the need arose, additional cottages were built and the local youth home began to accommodate both girls and boys. Cherokee Estate is now only for girls. Boys are now housed at separate facilities such as Mountain View in Chatsworth.

“Cherokee Estate provides a stable home for young ladies who might not otherwise have that benefit,” Jordan said. “We provide them with a loving, nurturing environment that many would not otherwise have.”

Most of the girls are attending Coahulla Creek High School.

Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said the Georgia Sheriffs Youth Homes have assisted in developing young people into leaders.

“For the last 50 years we have been providing a home setting of love and care and leadership for our youth that have unfortunately been placed by the courts of the state of Georgia,” Chitwood said. “It’s something that we’re very proud of, that we support very strongly, and we think we get great, great mileage out of it.”

Remembering the home’s roots as Cherokee Boys Estate, Chitwood said he still sees a lot of men who are products of the facility.

“We’ve had a lot of young men who are still in the Dalton area and who have gone into leadership roles,” he said. “They’ve become very productive citizens and to hear their testimony I think they would give us a four star rating.”

For more information on the golf tournament or to register, call (706) 259-8581.

To view the full golf tourney story online, please visit this location.

Darcy Wintonyk and Lynda Steele, CTV British Columbia

Homeowners who love the look of a lush, green lawn but hate the yard that goes with it are driving a growing movement towards artificial grass.

Sylvia Baker and her husband installed an artificial lawn and putting green on the rooftop deck of their East Vancouver penthouse. She said it gets rave reviews from family and friends.

“They love it,” she told CTV’s Steele on Your Side. “First of all it just looks so cozy now with all the greenery. Everyone loves — so comfy.”

Fake turf has come a long way since it was introduced at the Houston Astrodome in the 1960′s.

Today’s artificial grass is like a carpet for your front yard. It’s good for homeowners who have kids, snowbirds who don’t want to pay for maintenance year-round, properties with drainage problems, north-facing lots that don’t get a lot of sunlight — and even condos.

Greg Loewen, who owns Canadian 4 Season Turf, ripped out his front lawn and replaced it all with turf.

“You don’t need to use chemicals. You’re not using all the water, so there are lots of environmental reasons to get into it,” he said.

The turf is well suited to pets, eliminating brown spots and holes from a dog who loves to dig. Artificial grass keeps dirt and mud off of pets, getting rid of muddy paws tracked inside the house.

Steele on Your Side visited the installation of a synthetic lawn of an East Vancouver strata complex. The 660-square-foot high-end job is worth about $8,000.

Chris Berry of SYNLawn said the life expectancy of the job is around 20 to 30 years.

“We’re going to get the maximum out of that — 25 to 30 here in the Lower Mainland — because we don’t get the extreme heat or extreme cold.”

Berry says the turf pays for itself in about three years, when you factor in the savings of not maintaining a traditional yard.

While fake grass is just catching on in Canada, it’s big business south of the border.

The Las Vegas strip is lined with artificial turf, and hotel and homeowners there receive hefty government rebates for installing the grass to help conserve water.

Berry is confident it’s only a matter of time before Canadians embrace the concept.

“A lot of people my age are tired of pushing lawn mowers around,” he said.

The artificial turf is also being used in dog runs, playgrounds, on boats, the floor of trade show booths and golf courses are using the product for tee-offs and putting greens. Toronto is even installing artificial turf on its medians.

SYNLawn has also installed artificial turf at Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo and a one-million-square-foot army base in Texas.

To view the full story online, please visit this location.

By Dave Pelz, Technical and Short Game Consultant, GOLF Magazine

Thanks for coming to Golf.com to see more of my son Eddie’s “backyards for golfers” designs. He built the short-game practice facility of my dreams in my backyard for a reason: to help me learn firsthand what is needed for you to improve your short game and putting. This is part of my overall view that if you can improve your short game skills in the comfort and convenience of your own yard during the week after work, then you’ll shoot lower scores and enjoy the game more when you play on the weekends.

Unfortunately, most of us have to work for a living. This leaves little time on work days to practice golf. Thanks to the quality of some new SYNLawn Golf turf products, which I am having the privilege of helping develop, we can all now pitch and putt on realistically behaving grasses and greens at home in our backyards. That’s my plan: practice at home … play better on the weekends. Living with such conditions in my dream home, with my dream gal, I’m going to work on my short game for as long as I can swing a club, or stroke a putter.

But that’s my own dream. My real goal is to inspire you to find a way to practice your wedges and putting on weekday evenings. I want you to get home from work, change into something comfortable, and step out into your backyard for a few minutes with a wedge or putter. No dressing up, no driving anywhere, no wasted time. Just relax, hit a few shots (for 3, 10, 30 minutes or more), and then go inside for supper. Spend constructive time with your family, have fun with the kids, and lower your handicap simultaneously. What could be better!

You know, improving golf skills is in a way like learning to speak French. Frequent short practice sessions (in the evenings) help a lot more than long sessions that are few and far-between. And since you spend most evenings at home, if you practice more easily and often, your skills can be dramatically improved over time.

Transforming your backyard into a legitimate practice area isn’t as difficult — or expensive — as you might think. To give you an idea of what is involved, please look at some basic designs that might fit into your yard. Of course each design will be customized to optimize your own home/yard layout. And by adding such an amenity, you’ll also add to your home’s value. I recommend using “nylon” based synthetic grasses, which are available in various green-speeds and for fringe, fairway and rough applications (nylon last longer with usually 8 to 10 year, and sometimes more, guarantees), as compared to polypropylene products.

“Easy access to golf” can be fit into almost any backyard and creates a low maintenance (no water or mowing) situation for long term care and maintenance costs. You probably won’t need anywhere near the amount of turf I used. In reality, you only need small (4′ x 4′) tee areas to hit from (the more the better), and small (15′ x 25′) green targets to hit to. I also recommend starting with something small and close to the house (the closer to the house, the more you’ll use it, I promise), because if you don’t have the time or energy to pitch or putt close to your house, you don’t need a larger and more expensive complex farther out in the yard.

View the full story online at this location.

“This is a trend that we are seeing across America,” stated SYNLawn Indiana Managing Partner Pat Phillips. “People want to have golf accessible, and installing a portable green allows enthusiasts to walk out their back door, into their basement or even into their living rooms and practice their game.

Family installs 10'x16' Dave Pelz GreenMaker for its versatility and portability

Kids and adults alike are benefitting from tools such as portable greens like the many sizes of Pelz GreenMakers or even simple $200 SYNLawn golf mats.” This trend is aptly named “accessible golf.” “We’re also seeing a national trend of people requesting backyard golf greens, thus the reason the Dave Pelz ‘Elements of Practice‘ has become so popular.”

For more information on SYNLawn’s full roster of golf greens and products, check out http://www.synlawngolf.com/ . In Indiana call us at 317.430.1521 or 866.204.1372 for a free estimate.

Below Brad describes his experience installing his Dave Pelz GreenMaker.

How challenging was the GreenMaker to install yourself?
From start to finish, the Dave Pelz GreenMaker only took 2 1/2 hours on an exterior setup with a crushed rock base. The instructions made the setup extremely easy and the base pieces fit together like a glove.

Why did you choose this SYNLawn Putting Green product?
I chose the GreenMaker for its versatility and portability. It was easy to set up and give the green some contour.

Was it easy to order?
The ordering process was seamless. I just worked with a sales rep to place the final order, arrange shipping and make my payment. The GreenMaker showed up a short time later.

Any advice for others considering ordering this product?
I would recommend watching YouTube video or read some articles on backyard putting greens. I picked up some good tips on the underpayment for the base.

What will you do with the GreenMaker in the winter time?
Living in the Midwest, I will probably disassemble the GreenMaker and set it up indoors for the winter since set up is so easy. I’m still considering covering it with a tarp for the winter, but if I disassemble it once a year, it will give me the opportunity to change the contours in the spring and have a brand new experience with the GreenMaker.

In under 3 hours, this Fishers Indiana Family has a summertime private green in their own backyard. During the winter, the GreenMaker will get reassembled inside for additional practice and fun.