Winter can be a dark, lonely time for Central Iowa golfers – but for tennis players, no problem. They can play indoors at Aspen Athletic Club or 7 Flags Fitness & Racquet Club, both in Clive, or under a fabric dome at Des Moines Golf & Country Club in West Des Moines if they’re members.

Retired guys, businessmen, working women, doubles, singles – there’s a place for all types of netters.

“There are a lot of guys who come out and want to beat up on each other,” said Gary Scholl, Aspen’s director of tennis. “Two or three attorneys play every day at noon, and I hear them in the locker room trash-talking each other.”

The gang at 7:30 a.m. doesn’t take it quite that seriously, says Chuck Kuba. The owner of Iowa Diamond joined the club when he moved to Des Moines eight years ago, and plays three mornings a week during the winter.

“The people who play are everything from insurance people to attorneys to one gentleman who was responsible for leasing space in new malls all over the country,” Kuba said. “Tennis is no longer an elitist sport; nevertheless, it still attracts professionals. For one thing, you have to have time to play. For me, my business has been built to where I have a little flexibility in my schedule.”

Kuba grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., and started playing on clay courts at the age of 13. When he lived in Houston, Texas, he and a partner once won a doubles championship in one of the city’s public leagues.

At 57, he doesn’t consider it limiting to play indoors during the winter. That’s the only time and place he does play. “I’m not crazy about playing outdoors, because you never know the condition of the courts,” he said. “I broke an ankle one time and got a stress fracture in my elbow another time, playing outdoors.”

In the winter, the climate is always the same on the indoor courts of Aspen. In the summer, “we have a pool in the back yard,” Kuba said. “I tend to turn to that.”

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