Drive for success: golf learning centers help duffers ... and your bottom line.

Simulators that let golfers "play" a number of championship courses. Automated tees that serve up golf balls mechanically. Enclosed and heated hitting stalls. Bunkers, fairways and greens that mimic actual course conditions.

These are just some of the features found in today's park district golf learning centers, which allow golfers far more than the chance to practice their swings by whacking a golf ball toward a yardage target. New centers provide expanded facilities for growing rosters of players, offer more and varied facilities, and help introduce novices to the game, with new or expanded lesson programs. Some park districts have also added ancillary attractions, such as miniature golf courses. And with these extra facilities, golf centers can boost the bottom line as well.

"We're seeing much more focus today on introducing women and young people to golf," says Daniel Nicholas, principal at PHN Architects of Wheaton, Ill,, an architectural firm that been involved in a number of golf course, clubhouse and golf center projects.

The name itself--"golf learning center"--is a relatively new trend, as are some of the attractions being added to golf courses, says Nicholas. But most centers have their origin in the driving range of old. What's different these days is the scope of these newer ranges.

While components vary, nearly all include an updated driving range, many with bunkers, fairways and greens to permit golfers to practice a variety of shots. Some ranges in northerly climates include enclosed, heated hitting stalls that allow year-round use. In areas where extreme heat exists, misters are installed.

"There's a great effort to make the driving range of yesterday more attractive, more interesting and more available to a wider audience," Nicholas says.

Practice Makes Perfect

The newer centers bring realism into the realm, letting golfers practice what they'll face on the course.

"At our new facility, you can practice just about any shot you're going to find on a golf course," says Ed Clift, executive director of the Byron (Ill.) Forest Preserve District, which operates the championship 18-hole Prairie-View Golf Course. Byron opened a new golf practice facility in 2001 that includes a second putting green, a chipping green and a pitching green with two bunkers, two sand traps and a variety of elevations.

"That's what golfers need to help improve their games," says Clift. "You can practice from 40 yards in, with hilly lies, flat lies, downhill and uphill lies." (Statistics indicate that most golfers take about 70 percent of their shots within 100 yards of the green.)

"If you 2-putt every green, that's 36 strokes of putting," notes Clift. "If you shoot an 80, that's a big percentage of your score. If you add another 18 shots for pitching and chipping, 36 shots out of 80 are within 100 yards of the green--nearly half. It's critical, if you're going to be a good golfer, to chip well and putt well. People really can cut their scores by practicing those aspects of the game."

At Byron, Clift says, "we have a lot of the lower-handicap golfers practicing specific shots for 45 minutes or an hour." The center also gets a workout by the district's junior golfers, particularly those trying out for high school teams.

"We've tried to take the 18 holes of the golf course and, in effect, create all those experiences at the practice facility,' says Chuck Szoke, director of the Channahon (Ill.) Park District, which operates Heritage Bluffs Public Golf Club.

Heritage Bluffs' learning center has been open for about 10 years. It includes a traditional concept driving range with a two-tiered grass practice range, plus synthetic surfaces for early-season and wet-weather use. It also has a defined bent grass fairway, target and putting greens, a chipping green with a sand bunker and fairway bunkers.

"Our goal is to provide the opportunity to hit every shot you're going to be hitting on our golf course," says Szoke. "We want to give people the chance to learn every shot you're going to have in a golf environment, not just hitting drivers off a mat to a sign that says '200 yards' on it."

Channahon has recently added an additional teaching station, used for practice space and an expanded lesson program. The center and course attract golfers, says Szoke. Channahon is a small community of only 12,000. "We have a lot of golfers come in from outside the community. We get a lot of positive feedback. Golfers appreciate all the opportunities that are there," says Szoke.

Playing Well in Peoria

The Peoria (Ill.) Park District's Golf Learning Center & Academy opened in 1999. It includes indoor and outdoor practice facilities, including an indoor putting green; nine indoor hitting nets; a nine-hole USGA-specification pitch-and-putt course; and a 21,000-square-foot putting and chipping green with practice sand bunkers and fairways. The driving range has six outdoor, covered and heated hitting stations--for use in all weather--with recreated hole layouts that allow players to place shots instead of having to imagine them.

"We had five golf courses, but we had only a small driving range we'd outgrown," says Bill Woolard, superintendent of golf. "There really wasn't a facility in our area where golfers could practice every facet of the game." Now, instead of hitting a ball onto a field, golfers can visualize the fairways and can tell where their shots went. "From a golfer's standpoint, that's pretty important," he notes.

In Chicago's northwest suburbs, golfers await the opening of the "short-game" area of the Libertyville Golf Learning Center, owned and operated by the Village of Libertyville's Parks and Recreation Department. The short-game area includes putting greens and sand traps to provide golfers with realistic practice facilities; space for private lessons is nearby. In the meantime, Chicago's infamous winters are no longer a deterrent to golfers who want to practice in January or February. The rest of the center, which opened last summer, has 80 practice stations, 40 of which are covered and heated for all-weather use. The center has another attraction, particularly for those who like gadgets: the covered hitting stations are equipped with automated tees, used by inserting prepaid debit cards into the tee-up machine.

"There's a market for people who want to practice year-round," says Randy Reopelle, director of parks and recreation, and he's backed by the numbers: 1 million balls were hit from the automated stations from August 2002 through February 2003. And the numbers are going up: 97,000 golf balls in January; doubling to 204,000 in February, and then nearly doubling again to 404,000 in March.

Automated tees aren't just a marketing gimmick, but an aid to improvement. "One of the basics of golf is the stance, the grip," Reopelle points out. "If you're not bending over to place the ball on the tee, it's easier to get those things down. That can really help the beginning golfer. This wasn't something we had anticipated, but from talking to our golfers, the benefits are pretty clear."

Learn From the Pros

Adding a learning center also generally allows district to add or expand lesson programs. That was the case for the Deerfield (Ill.) Park District. "We'd never been able to offer an instructional program in the past because we had no teaching area; we only had the golf course," says Linda Gryziecki, director of parks and recreation for the district.

The district has a new learning center and driving range with 32 hitting stations, a chipping area, putting green and six target greens with varying elevations. "We hired a golf pro who started late last year who's planning junior clinics and camps, and private and group lessons for adults," Gryziecki says. With the new center, officials will have the flexibility to close the range to create a "mini course" of six shortened holes for youth programs. Now Deerfield can offer a well-balanced facility with youth and teaching programs.

In Libertyville, Reopelle says, "we had developed a pretty good lesson program, but we were looking for a facility to take that program to the next level." In Peoria, nearly four years after opening, lessons are easily 50 percent ahead of expectations. Group and individual lessons are offered. Last year, the district introduced family group lessons, for all ages to learn the game together.

One big plus to a learning center is the friendly atmosphere, park district officials say. That atmosphere, in turn, encourages more people to become golfers.

"You walk in the front door and you feel welcome," said Peoria's Woolard. "One of the things we'd identified from talking to people at other facilities was that a lot of people didn't feel comfortable being a new player going to a golf course. But with our setting, they're comfortable. With group lessons, golfers learn not only hitting, but also how to check in, get a cart, get clubs if you need them. We improve the comfort level, more than anything."

Nearly four years after opening, range usage has met--perhaps even exceeded--expectations, Woolard says. "We've really been able to introduce the game to a lot of individuals who would not have even considered the game and who may not have had the chance to do so," he notes.

In many cases, the expanded facilities bring in more players. For example, after expanding its clubhouse (including adding a junior area with a large-screen television, eating areas and 60-bag storage area), the Byron Forest Preserve District saw its junior program expand dramatically, Clift says.

The centers succeed because they let people become familiar with golf in a learning atmosphere, instead of on an actual golf course, which many people find intimidating, park district directors agree. "No one wants to look foolish," says Channahon's Szoke. "Here you can spend whatever time you want. It's an opportunity to learn in a much less pressured environment and gain skill and proficiency."

The center is doing what officials want, he says. "We're getting more kids, more women, even former golfers who went away and may now be looking to come back," says Szoke. "We want to get as many people as possible comfortable with the game, to enjoy the game.

"Golf is a 300-year-old game, but it's constantly changing and reinventing itself, and looking for new markets and new opportunities. We never look at any phase of the operation as done, finished. We're always trying to respond to trends and what people are looking for, and provide the best experience we can."

VIRTUAL REALITY? OF COURSE

The Oak Lawn (Ill.) Park District's Stony Creek Golf Course's relatively new learning center includes three practice greens, sheltered hitting bays, a grassy area to practice hitting off of grass and a practice bunker. The center is popular and has helped increase golfers' expertise. "It lets people actually practice what they'll see on the golf course," says Tim Scott, director of golf, who adds, "Unless you're the only range in town you have to add some of these things."

The district's new clubhouse even includes "virtual golf." The clubhouse boasts two simulators, computerized golfing machines to let golfers practice their shots in any season or weather, or "play" more than 40 golf courses renowned throughout the world. The simulators include a large screen into which golfers physically hit their shot. "The computer tracks your swing and estimated velocity and portrays that on the screen," says Joel Craig, superintendent of parks. "It appears you're actually playing a course." Golfers can select different clubs--putter, irons or woods--depending on the "course."

The machines are particularly popular during the winter, with leagues even formed. There's another advantage--increased revenues in the off season.

TEE FOR TWO, OR MORE

Some park districts have added nearby entertainment complexes to their golf learning centers. Libertyville's Golf Learning Center connects, via an interior road, to a family center, with miniature golf, batting cages and clubhouse with video arcade and party rooms, as well as to a separate 168,000-square-foot indoor sports center. Oak Lawn also includes a miniature golf range, which encourages families to head to the course together, some to play regular golf, some to play miniature.

Beth Bales lives in Geneva, Ill., and is a writer associated with PHN Architects of Wheaton, Ill. She also works with a media relations firm in Naperville, Ill., is a former newspaper reporter and copy editor, and writes a weekly community columnar a suburban Chicago newspaper.