Landon Strohm and Ryan Ludwig are looking forward to golfing for East Noble High School this spring.
The freshmen play other sports, but one nice thing about golf is it’s kind of relaxing, Strohm said. Out on the links, it can get mighty frustrating, but you don’t have to get aggressive with other people.
On Saturday, the golf buddies attended the 10th annual Northern Indiana Golf Show at SportONE Parkview Fieldhouse, an event presented by Fort Wayne Newspapers that is expected to draw between 1,200 and 1,400 people over the weekend.
There were 90 vendor booths on the ground level, including a booth promoting the 40th USGA’s Senior Open Championship, which will be held at The Warren Course at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend this year.
Upstairs, it was pure golfer fun and not your grandpa’s putt-putt course.
The Golf House, a new local venture that opened its doors in October at the Fieldhouse, features two state-of-the-art simulators, offering the chance to play at any one of 54 top golf courses through technology. Once you hit the ball, a gray line on a large screen shows where your ball landed and the journey it took to get there.
“You can play nine holes of golf in an hour,” said Dan Wert, co-director of The Golf House with Alec Ramsey. Wert said his 83-year-old grandmother can play golf again because of the simulators.
Along with the simulators, there is a driving range where balls hit a netted curtain and a putting green.
Strohm and Ludwig said their fathers were the ones to introduce them to the game and so playing offers some family time as well.
Rick Ludwig, Ryan’s father, said he’s been golfing about 20 years and wished he’d taken it up sooner.
The key, said Fort Wayne resident Jeff Davis, who couldn’t remember the last time he’d been to a local golf show but hopes of better weather drew him there, is to start the kids on the links at a young age.
A mortgage banker, Davis took up the game at 22 as a “good way to spend time with friends and good networking for business purposes,” he said.
Golf has seen an overall decline in the U.S., but according to www.golf.com, there is some good news. In an article published in May, the U.S. lost 737 total golf facilities between 2011 and 2016, but more than 2,300 alternative golf facilities such as The Golf House opened.
The U.S.also saw 2.5 million people golf for the first time in 2016, up from 1.5 million in 2011, the article said.
“The struggle is more competition for time,” especially when children’s sports and other activities have increased over time, Davis said. “Can people justify four hours to play golf?”
That’s why places like The Golf House have opened, offering a social atmosphere, too.
At the simulators, a player can take a whack at the ball then sit and enjoy a beer while friends take their turn. Oh, and today, you can also take in the Super Bowl on the overhead television.
The golf show continues today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $8 for adults; children 12 and under are free.
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