For more than two decades, Jim Morse was living in southern California, where he could be out on the golf course every day of the year.
Here in Indiana, he doesn’t have the same luxury — and Morse, who is the director of instruction at The Legends Golf Club, sees that as a problem for local golfers.
“I’ve been here three years, and I see people that don’t do anything in the offseason,” Morse said. “Well, they spend the first four to six weeks of the season just terrible, and then they’re miserable. … By the time you get them to where they should be, there’s a month left in the golf season.”
Morse is working on the solution. He has leased a plot of land at the Legends that he plans to use for an indoor training facility. The building, which will be 3,200 square feet in size, will enable players to work on their golf games during the frigid winter months.
Only a couple of courses in the Indianapolis area currently have indoor training facilities — The Golf Club of Indiana in Lebanon and Prairie View in Carmel. (Riverside Golf Academy in Indianapolis also offers a year-round driving range and indoor putting green.)
Once permits are in hand, construction can begin on Morse’s project. The facility is expected to be ready in the first half of 2019.
The building will include three hitting bays, each approximately 500 square feet in size. Two of the bays, which Morse and his wife Crystal, the head pro at The Legends, will use for instruction, will be outfitted with video equipment, launch monitors and impact screens. Plans for the third bay are still up in the air.
In the middle of the building, there will be a large turf green that will be utilized for chipping and putting instruction.
“This isn’t going to be just, OK, set up a couple of nets in a building,” Jim Morse said. “This is going to be something that most anybody in this area has not seen before. I’m not cutting corners. It’ll be a pleasant surprise to people who want to continue improving their game in the wintertime.”
Ted Bishop, general manager of The Legends, is excited about being able to have a year-round training center on site.
“If you’re looking to make swing changes or major changes in your game, or even refinements, repetition is a great way to do it, and there’s no better way than winter instruction,” Bishop said.
“I think it kind of completes our facility.”
