As another Iowa winter approaches, ISU varsity golf coaches are anticipating a future when they will be able to forecast a 100 percent chance mixture of rain, snow — and golf balls.

These predictions could become a reality this spring if the ISU athletic department is able to secure additional private funding to complete a planned indoor-to-outdoor hitting heated bay practice facility on the driving range at Veenker Memorial Golf Course.

“We’ll never be prohibited from hitting balls through the winters with rain and snow,” ISU women’s head coach Julie Manning said. “It’s just endless what could happen here.”

The facility will also decrease the advantage that the Big 12 southern schools have over their northern counterparts and increase Iowa State’s ability to recruit top players from around the state and nation, Manning said.

Also, it will give the teams the opportunity to practice more frequently, with “better quality practices,” said ISU men’s head coach Jay Horton.

To practice hitting full-range shots, both ISU teams currently travel to Longview Golf Centre in Urbandale, an 80-yard indoor dome facility, or the Wakonda Country Club driving range in Des Moines, a similar facility to the one proposed at Veenker. The Longview and Wakonda facilities are both about 40-mile drives from Ames.

“We don’t feel like our student-athletes can be on the road more than once or twice a week in the winter months,” Manning said.

Many times the weather conditions do not provide for safe driving conditions and the long drive is difficult to plan into the student-athletes’ academic schedules.

Cyclone junior standout Louise Kenney said she dreads the drive sometimes.

The new facility will be more accessible and will allow her to practice for longer periods of time and to do so more frequently, she said.

Manning said with the new facility located at Veenker, a mere mile and a half from Central Campus, her golfers will have the opportunity to hit golf balls every day of the week.

All coaches are limited by the NCAA to only eight hours of contact time each week with their athletes in the offseason, Horton said. Horton’s attention now must be divided between all of his golfers at the same practice time when they travel together to the facilities in the Des Moines area, he said.

Having the new facility in Ames would allow Horton to schedule his athletes at individual times throughout the day, allowing him to give each athlete more one-on-one attention and allowing the athlete to select a time that best fits their academic schedule.

North vs. South

The heated bay facility will help Iowa State keep pace with the trends of their biggest competitors.

“There has been a surge in Big 12 and Big Ten schools securing facilities like these,” Manning said.

Former ISU golfer and coach Mark Hankins, now head men’s coach at Michigan State, said the practice facilities have helped northern schools to “blow away the perception that northern schools can’t compete with southern schools [who can play golf outdoors year-round],” as northern schools have proved to be some of the top performers in the NCAA in recent years.

A lot of players in the south have the perception that they will be able to play outdoors all season and that they will be better simply because they can play complete rounds of golf year-round, Hankins said.

He said the offseason is a prime opportunity to break down a golfer’s swing at the fundamental level without having to worry about shooting a particular score, to work with sports psychologists to become better mentally and to work in the gym to improve physically.

After coaching at the University of Texas at Arlington for several years, Hankins said he knows southerners don’t stop to “take the time to get better.”

“The heating bay is the best way to go,” Hankins agreed. “It is going to be a great asset to the golfers come spring time … especially when the courses aren’t in their best shape.”

Kenney said seeing the result of a shot is vital to improving.

“It’s a lot more realistic,” Kenney said.

“It gives you more confidence in the winter if you can see yourself hitting good shots.”

A commitment to ISU golf

The new facility will demonstrate a commitment to golf teams at Iowa State, Manning said.

“It’s helping us to narrow that gap,” she said.

Although Hankins said the coaching staff is always the primary concern of the athletes he has recruited, he said the school’s facilities are often the next critical factor a recruit will take into consideration.

“Players have to know that they are going to have the best opportunity to improve and in many cases are wondering if your program will help them become a professional golfer,” Hankins said.

Facilities like this increase the odds that players will see Iowa State as a place they can achieve these goals, he said.

Freshman Christi Athas was told during her recruitment that the heated bay practice facility would be completed during her career as a Cyclone.

“[A new facility] means a lot just to be able to go out and hit balls when it’s cold,” Athas said. “It really motivates you to hit balls when it is warm and you can see the ball flight. It will help keep us competitive.”