Golf

Weil now has a new attraction. An indoor golf centre called "Greenpoint" opened at the beginning of October, and I tried it out yesterday.

I arrived to find I was the only one there - on a Sat morning - so there isn't much word on the street about it yet. The actual facilities were quite impressive: landscaped with an artificial grass surface, with a small pond with a trickling fountain in the middle, a practice green, a bunker, sound effects of twittering birds, plus there was also a netted area for practicing.

It's main attraction though is the simulator where you can "play" the famous golf courses of the world. Herr Banholzer, the retired-looking gentleman who runs the complex, invited me to have a try on it. He loaded up the Old Course at St Andrews for me, and I found myself playing the Road Hole first. You just tee the ball up and let rip. The sensor does the rest, measuring the scientific aspects such as velocity, angle of club approach on the down-swing, etc. My tee shot was a cracker! Second shot landed in Hell Bunker, then I bailed out..... on to the asphalt at the back. Anyway, up to four people can play on it, and it costs EUR 33 for an hour. For extra EUR 10, you can subsequently have your swing analysed on the adjacent simulator. To begin with though, I just paid a tenner for 60 balls for the "driving range".

The new centre has a website, albeit one that's still "in construction":

http://www.greenpoint-weil.de