With all the snow that accumulated this year on the golf greens, high school golf teams across New Jersey have yet to play on their courses.

In past years, high school golf teams in New Jersey have had anywhere from 2-3 weeks to practice on the courses before they played their first match. But even after all the snow on the courses has melted, the grounds crew has to maintain the courses and get the course into appropriate playing conditions. This process can take anywhere from 1-2 weeks to complete.

With the first matches scheduled for March 31st, coaches across New Jersey are scrambling to find places to practice at. The Glen Rock High School golf team plays most of its home matches at Paramus Country Club. Paramus was supposed to open on March 17th, however, with all of the snow, Paramus remains closed.

The golf team has found it very difficult to find places to practice at this season. And with the other sports teams occupying the sports fields and gymnasiums, the problem seemed irreconcilable.

But the Glen Rock High School Golf team has moved to simulators, better described as ‘indoor golf machines.’ The athletes hit a ball at the screen, and the simulator calculates how far the ball would carry and how far left or right the ball will deviate. Although it lacks the dynamics of outdoor golf, it is as close as the team can get to playing a round of golf without actually playing a round of golf.

Yet simulators are the bright point of the team’s practices thus far.  When the Glen Rock High School Golf team is not practicing at the simulators, they are limited to putting in the media center or chipping in the APR.

“There is nothing we can really do about it,” golf team captain John Crawford said. “It’s a struggle to deal with. It’s something that every team has to go through this year.”