When the weather outside is frightful, many golfers head indoors to work on their short game. While it's admittedly more fun to practice your chipping and putting outdoors on a real green, there are benefits to practicing inside during the winter months.
For one, you can control the conditions when you're indoors. If you're working on your touch around the greens, you can set up a specific shot over and over again until you get it just right. That's difficult to do when you're at the mercy of Mother Nature.
You can also use indoor practice to work on shots that you don't normally have an opportunity to play outdoors. For example, if you want to work on hitting a high flop shot, you can set up a ball machine or launch monitor to hit that same shot repeatedly. It's also a great way to try out new clubs or experiment with different swing thoughts without having to worry about losing balls in the woods!
Of course, indoor practice isn't exactly like playing under real conditions. But if you use your imagination and focus on specific areas of your game, it can be an extremely effective way to improve your short game this winter.