Dennis Grall | Daily Press Adam May of Gladstone hits a ball into a screening showing the Greystone Golf Club, one of 50 courses available to play on a new golf simulator at ANM Golf at the K & K Golf Center in Escanaba. May is leasing the front showroom for the game and golf equipment.

ESCANABA — It’s January and you’re in Escanaba during a heavy, wet snow storm.

How about playing some golf today?

That’s just what I did Monday, in the aftermath of the season’s first major snowfall. I’ve played golf in all 50 states and at every Upper Peninsula course – plus six that have since closed – and now I can add an indoor golf experience to my links resume.

ANM Golf opened Dec. 7 in the K & K Golf Center on No. 6th Ave., adjacent to Holiday Gas. Owner Adam May, who is on the Gladstone Golf Club board of directors, is leasing the showroom from John Kelly, who has maintained the garage area in the back for his golf cart business.

“I’ve been golfing since I was a toddler (in Crivitz, Wis.) and have always had a passion for it. It was time to put the passion into reality,” he said Monday after a session in which he demonstrated the many uses of his simulated golf display.

Players can hit into a driving range screen or play any of 50 world-wide golf courses, such as Royal Troon, Bay Hill, Torrey Pines, Bethpage Black or several courses on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Trail. A dart game using golf balls is also part of the format.

Golfers hit into a 10-foot wide screen with full HD and 3D viewing. “It is the latest state of the art screen,” May said of the Trugolf screen built in Utah. Now that a similar set-up in Marquette has closed, the nearest golf simulator is in Appleton. “This is a brand new unit, the latest and the greatest,” he said.

The screen, which shows in vivid detail every hole on each of the 50 courses, can take an impact of a 180 mph ball. For each ball hit, a display shows distance and carry, swing and ball speed, launch angle, ckub path (i.e. inside-out or straight on), back spin and side spin.

“It is everything an instructor would look at in your golf swing,” said May, making this set-up ideal for trying out and fitting new clubs that should help put your game where it belongs.

There is also an area for chipping and putting, and May said some players are starting to form a league at the facility.

May, who works for Billy Electric, will also have golf clubs for sale, including Cobra Puma, Odyssey, Cleveland, Calloway and Ping. He is going to attend Maltby Golf Academy in March to become PGA certified for fitting, building and repairing clubs and installing grips.

“I went the full gamut,” he said of purchasing new equipment for club work.

A golf demo will be held at ANM Golf Wednesday from 4-7 p.m., with representatives from Cleveland, Srixon and Tour Edge on hand.

May also said golfers will soon be able to make their own ANM tee times by going on-line.

Cost to use the simulator is $15 for 30 minutes. Players can rent 9-hole rounds on any of the 50 courses by half hour segments. Players can also go on-line and play a match with someone anywhere in the world as long as both players have the same set-up.

As snow flakes continued to fall outside the building and driving was becoming difficult, May said “you can play Bay Hill in a snowstorm if you want to. This is weather proof, it has an entertainment value plus it is a tool (to fix your game). Rain or shine, you can always set up a tee time.”