bigskyirish
Well-known member
This is easily the worst part of the facilities at my course.
There is a good-sized practice green, which is solid for putting. It generally mirrors the speed of the green on the course.
You can chip on the green as well, but we're talking very short chips from either fringe or long rough. There is no real variety of conditions or slope around the green for practicing short game shots. And you can't practice them from any distance both because there isn't room and because there are usually people putting on the green.
There is a "short game" area at the end of the range, which consists of a small green and an area of fairway that stretches to about 100 yards. It also has a bunker. This is fine for practicing shots up to about 100 yards with some caveats. The big one is that the green is not really maintained--it's cut to about fairway length. So if you want to practice flying the ball a certain distance in the air, it works well. But to practice how shots react when they land on the putting surface--a pretty critical factor for a good short game--it's relatively worthless. Same thing for the bunker and chipping. If you want to practice getting balls out of the bunker or rough onto the green, you can do it. But you have no idea how much run out, etc. you are getting. So it's hard to practice any touch. It also has the disadvantage of being about 350 yards from the clubhouse. You can usually grab a cart and head down there, but not always and to walk down requires you to grab a bucket, fill it with balls, and then play frogger as you walk along the edge of the driving range with the landing area of either #1 or #18 on the opposite side.
There is a good-sized practice green, which is solid for putting. It generally mirrors the speed of the green on the course.
You can chip on the green as well, but we're talking very short chips from either fringe or long rough. There is no real variety of conditions or slope around the green for practicing short game shots. And you can't practice them from any distance both because there isn't room and because there are usually people putting on the green.
There is a "short game" area at the end of the range, which consists of a small green and an area of fairway that stretches to about 100 yards. It also has a bunker. This is fine for practicing shots up to about 100 yards with some caveats. The big one is that the green is not really maintained--it's cut to about fairway length. So if you want to practice flying the ball a certain distance in the air, it works well. But to practice how shots react when they land on the putting surface--a pretty critical factor for a good short game--it's relatively worthless. Same thing for the bunker and chipping. If you want to practice getting balls out of the bunker or rough onto the green, you can do it. But you have no idea how much run out, etc. you are getting. So it's hard to practice any touch. It also has the disadvantage of being about 350 yards from the clubhouse. You can usually grab a cart and head down there, but not always and to walk down requires you to grab a bucket, fill it with balls, and then play frogger as you walk along the edge of the driving range with the landing area of either #1 or #18 on the opposite side.