and just in time for the end of the season.  I belong to a group of golfers known as the ‘snow bound’.  Few options exist for us.

• Escape to the sunny south.  Difficult without means, and timing is often everything.  If you can only escape for a week, the middle of January is a horrible time as there’s simply too much winter left to deal with when you come back.  However, closer to springtime also brings higher airfare.  Decisions, decisions.
• Join a winter league with an indoor sim.  It’s still swinging clubs, hitting balls, and drinking beer.  It’s often the only time some of us will hit 350 yard drives (with the sim distance boost on), but divots are frowned upon and you quickly get used to sweeping your shots – which could be tough to recover from come springtime.
• Chip balls in the living room or hit balls in the garage.  All the functionality of a sim without the fancy screen.  Plus, ricocheting balls damage your own stuff.  Divots are DEFINATELY frowned upon (unless your significant other was eyeing up new carpet anyway).
• Do drills.  Like plyometrics, they can be done in confined spaces, because if you try full swings with clubs you end up like this guy: Drills in small space
• Do nothing.  Surprisingly, this one takes the most commitment.  It takes guys a few tries to get going, often falling off the wagon to putt a few balls, but with other interests like hockey, sledding, and ice fishing, you can get the hang of it pretty easily.  For those who are having real trouble, playing Tiger Woods on your Playstation can often get you well on your way to doing nothing for your game, while playing a golf game.  It’s almost poetic.

Believe it or not, winter is also a fantastic time to tinker with your clubs.  Or more accurately, tinker with my clubs.  It’s the slowest part of the season, and most companies at least have some catalogues coming out in the new year to whet my appetite with new and innovative designs.  This is about the time I start to get bored and think about pulling apart my gamer set and assembling something new.  I generally consider the heads that did well last year along with the hottest shaft – this year would be the Wishon 560MC iron with FST KB Tour shafts, but I hear Tom Wishon has already spilled the beans on a low-offset version of his industry-leading game improvement 770CFE irons – the first thin-face design iron on the market.  People have been asking for this iron in a lowered offset version for quite some time, and it seems that Tom is going to oblige.  Word on the Wishon forum is that they’ll be the 870′s – I can’t wait, and already have my KB Tour’s ready to go.  The popular iron grip this year seemed to be the Golf Pride DD2.  I haven’t tried them myself, but I see them everywhere.  I’ve held them, but didn’t play them (preferring Sharpro half cord grips for my gloveless hands).  So for now, I’ll wait for spring, and get my order in on the first boat from China.

As for my winter plans, I’ll be lucky to get a couple weeks at the end of March.  I’m sure I’ll have some sort of clubs in my bag by then – I’ve always got a few designs I want to hit lying around!