New indoor driving range available in Archbold

By: Brian Hayden

Posted: 2/23/07

Starting next week, golf club members can practice their swing any time of year with the completion of a driving range in Syracuse University's Archbold Gymnasium.

The range, a 10-by-10 cage, will also feature a video player that allows the golfer to analyze their swing, according to Jim Hopkins, faculty adviser to the golf club and a manager in the School of Information Studies.

"We wanted to do something that was easily accessible on campus for those who enjoy golf," he said.

The range will be located in the training room atrium on Archbold's first floor, Hopkins said. While it is only available to the golf club, new members are always welcome to join the group's 40 active members.

"We are hoping this will add to the number of benefits to joining the golf club," he said.

Much of the work necessary to complete the range was completed by the golf club's student officers and Joe Lore, associate director of the Department of Recreation Services, Hopkins said.

Recreation Services was fully cooperative in completing the range because it wanted to stay consistent with all of the other athletic clubs that had winter training spaces, Lore said.

"What it offers is an avenue of golf practice during the winter months," he said.

While there are other driving ranges in the greater Syracuse area, they require a long drive by car, Lore said. None will be as accessible to Syracuse students as this one.

Ryne Varney, president of the golf club and a senior political science major, said he believes the range will boost the popularity of the typically seasonal sport.

Varney, who beat his experienced friends in his very first game nearly eight years ago, encouraged everyone to join the golf club.

"It's a great game," he said. "You'll use it for your whole life."

Included in the club fee dues are loaned golf clubs, lessons and lectures, use of the range and an opportunity to play on the competitive team, Hopkins said.

While golfers of all skill levels are welcomed to the golf club, sophomore communication and rhetorical studies major Brian Corley is skeptical of joining.

"I need a lot of practice," he said.