maly, too: Construction Of Iowa's Varsity Golf Complex Under Way

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Construction Of Iowa's Varsity Golf Complex Under Way

Completing a job without the necessary tools can be a challenge. It can be done, but creativity is required to overcome certain hurdles.

For the University of Iowa men's and women's golf teams, those hurdles include cold temperatures, snow and damp springs.

Hawkeye men's coach Mark Hankins and women's coach Megan Menzel had to find ways to practice during those cold winter months and soggy spring afternoons. Golf courses and driving ranges are nowhere near ready for use and Iowa winters aren't conducive to golf.

Now that construction on the new Varsity Golf Complex at Finkbine is under way, the hours spent on planning creative practice plans can now be spent on improving actual swings.

The Varsity Golf Complex will overlook hole No. 6 at Finkbine and will be the new home of Iowa golf. The facility will include a 3,150 square foot putting green that can be modified like a natural grass green, effectively recreating an outdoor putting surface. It will also have a 1,200 square foot performance studio featuring the V-1 Video Swing Analysis System, allowing players to digitally record, analyze and compare their swings to professionals to learn from the best in the world.

The performance studio will include indoor heated hitting bays that open to the driving range, enabling student-athletes to work on full swing mechanics throughout the entire year. Locker rooms, offices and lounge spaces for both teams will also be available once the facility is completed in February of 2013.

During the winter months or in inclement weather, Iowa golfers didn't have a place to hit full shots. Instead, they would hit into nets or maybe hit 120 yard wedges in The Bubble. The Varsity Golf Complex will give student-athletes a chance work on their entire game any day of the year.

"Ball flight is the biggest thing we will be picking up," Menzel said. "That really helps build confidence in your players."

Menzel pointed out that her team hasn't even played a full round or seen their full swing in action by the time the NCAA golf spring season rolls around.

"We will go out in the spring and play some pretty tough courses without seeing the ball completely off the club," Menzel said. "You want to put together a game plan before a tournament. Without knowing which direction the ball is going can make that even more challenging."

Hankins understands the role weather can play in college golf and the national rankings are a good explanation.

"Traditionally a lot of Big Ten teams are ranked highly after the fall season," Hankins said. "The one thing southern schools don't like to talk about is how good our fall weather is.

"In the spring, the Big Ten schools start to fall down the leaderboard," Hankins said. "It has to do with the preparation level and amount of time spent in inclement weather. Having a new facility like this not only gives us the chance to practice in the winter, but during rainy days in the spring as well."

Both coaches are frequently asked what exactly they do for training during the winter and early spring months. Now they can showcase a state-of-the-art facility to potential student-athletes to answer the question.

"This facility will be huge for us when it comes to recruiting," Menzel said. "We are very fortunate to have Finkbine so close to campus. This completely enhances that with all of the amenities. We are putting together a first-class facility and a great training center for our golfers."

"One of the things recruits are looking for is the ability for a program to help him make it the PGA TOUR," Hankins said. "You can't do that unless you have the proper facilities to teach them, and they can work on their game every day. This new facility gives us that opportunity."

Weather isn't the only thing the facility allows Iowa golfers to avoid. Daylight is no longer a worry.

"Say a player has a test of class commitment at 3 p.m. and needs to miss practice," Hankins said. "He can come in the facility at 11 p.m. at night if he wants and practice as long as he wants. It allows kids that want to work harder than anyone in the country the opportunity to make it to the highest level."

Any golfer knows that the short game is the most important aspect of the sport. The new short game room at the Varsity Golf Complex gives Iowa golfers a chance to chip out of simulated greenside rough and fringe, along with a massive putting surface that can be manipulated from day-to-day.

"Short game is the biggest part of the game where we want to see improvements," Menzel said. "The chipping and putting room right at our players' fingertips will be phenomenal."

The V-1 Video Swing Analysis System is used by the top professional players in the world. Iowa golfers will be able to use that technology every day at Finkbine.

"Some of the technology we have in this building is second-to-none," Hankins said. "We are going to have the best golf facility in the state of Iowa. That's not just on the college level, that's across the entire state. We need that because we have the best players in the state of Iowa."

Hankins has built the men's program into a perennial top-25 team and NCAA Tournament qualifier. Menzel's results in year one of a rebuilding process show that she is on the same path. Both are appreciative that this facility can now be used to ensure success.

"We've made some great strides," Menzel said. "I don't think there is any reason that we can't be a top tier program. It's really great to see all the support behind this project, and it's a great commitment to the program."

"We have a lot of people to thank for committing private funds to this project," Hankins said. "This is a platform for these kids to take it to the next level, continue to be a top-25 team and make us proud down the road on the PGA TOUR."

[Aaron Blau, Hawk Talk Daily.com].

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.