Your Course's Short Game Practice Area

JB

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I was speaking to one of my local Club Corp GM's this weekend about an upgrade they are thinking about doing and how needed it was. It got me thinking about how many courses have only a putting green and don't even allow chipping. Or have no bunkers to work with.

What does your local course offer for short game practice?
 
One putting/chipping green with 2 holes on it. One other small green with no holes on it, not much at all and no range.
 
It’s pretty mixed. Some have putting greens and no chipping. Some have both. Probably only two have a practice bunker


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We have a decently large green with two pins and a large bunker on one side. I sent a decent amount of time there yesterday working on my flop shot.

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We have a putting green, they allow chips to it also. no bunker practice area.
 
Putting green with 8 or so holes, two levels and some mini holes in a corner
Sand, chip, pitch area with two bunkers, two approach fairways one out to 50 yards., 3 flags on green
Mid/full bunkers on side of range.

I should use all of the above more.
 
My home course has a 270* driving range and 2 holes that you can practice any shot from about 100 yards in. Both greens have have several bunkers to practice in also.
 
Small putting green, no real regulation or rules about chipping, etc. It reads true to the rest of the greens on the course though.

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There is one large putting only green just outside the pro shop by the staging area. Farther down next to a Hank Haney facility and behind the range there is another green that can be used for putting and chipping and a 3rd green right next to that one for pitching and which also has a bunker that wraps around on two sides greenside bunker practice.


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Nothing

They have a short an astro turf putting green
 
We have a variety of setups here, 5 courses in town:
#1 - putting green with ample room for chipping, and a driving range
#2 - very large putting green, lots of room for short game within 50 yards, driving range a short walk away down the 1st hole
#3 - No green at all, no practice area
#4 - Small putting green, no other practice area
#5 - small putting green, no space for chipping, and a driving range

If the course with no practice area at all would just do a green (they have tons of extra room), I would play the course more. A domed green you could practice chipping/pitching into would make playing their course much much easier!
 
Actually there is a really good practice area at the closest course to my house, Apple Mountain.

The driving range is so-so, plenty of room, mats on weekdays and grass on weekends, but hitting into a pretty good hillside. Winter and Spring wet weather closes it down as they can't get out to collect the balls when the hill is wet and slick.

The putting green is great, pretty large, with lots of various slopes and big breaks. If you get tired of going through a normal practice routine on one of the relatively flat areas, you can hit some 40 - 50 footers with big breaks and steep slopes. Hit a few 20' up-slope to the top of a ridge, and watch them turn 90* and run another 20' down to the pin.

There is a nice chipping/pitching area, with two bunkers, and two pins on the somewhat small green. The bunkers aren't really very good, very little sand over hard-pan, but the chipping/pitching is really good, varies from fairway to pretty deep rough, and some hilly lies. The fairway area even goes back about 50 yards, so you can hit some pretty long shots if you have the place to yourself.

I don't practice as much as I'd like to, or need to, but I will hit Apple Mountain when I can, and usually just spend my time on short-game practice.
 
My two county courses:
Ash Brook: I haven't been there since the full opening after the reconstruction, but there was only a small putting green.
Galloping Hill: There are two practice greens for putting and two greens for short game practice.

Rutgers: There aren't any signs around the practice green that ban chipping and there is a separate green (including bunkers) for short game practice across the street near the driving range.

Hyatt Hills: There is a putting green and a separate green to the left of 1 tee for short game practice (including a bunker).
 
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The course on base has a very level putting green where they allow chipping. Then a long, skinny, odd hill practice green where you can chip and putt. Then 4 different unmowed greens where you can practice pitch shots out to about 50-60 yards max.

My club has a putting only green, with many contours, up by the first tee that generally has 9 different holes to putt to. We have another green down below that has a big slope on one side and mostly level on the other with a giant mound separating the sides, that has a bunker and 4 separate pins for chipping, bunker practice and shots out to about 50 depending on where you hit to. Then out in the middle of the course we have an area to practice shots out to 125 with stakes running down the sides spaced at 10 yard increments. Both practice greens are cut to the same standard as out on course.

My parents club up in Portland has quite possibly the greatest practice facilities I have ever seen. EVER. They have (a now) all grass range, with a small green beside it with two bunkers. One for greenside bunker practice and the other for hitting out into the range to practice fairway bunker shots. They have two practice greens by the pro shop. Putting only in front (if I recall correctly) with one hill and chipping and putting on the all level back green. About 15 years ago now, they built a ~100(?) yard practice range with bunkers and a giant green to hit to. PLUS a 9 hole par 3 course where you can hit from any distance you want with the longest being about 150. Attached is a satellite screen shot of the 1st and 9th holes and the practice range.

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My two home clubs have the following:

Full range separate from all other areas.
-a bunker area next to the range

Short game area that you can hit chips, flops pitches to a manicured green with 3-5 flags. You can hit shots there between 5yds and 35yds depending how many people are there and where the flags are. They setup 3-4-5 ball pyramids and pick the area by hand

A NO chipping practice putting green that is two tiered. Typically 3 flags/holes up and 3 down.


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The golf school side has a 9 hole putting/chipping green and an elevated pitching area with a green side bunker. The bunker wraps around so you can hit full swing/fairway bunker shots out onto the range.

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The main club house side has the main range and the same two options, only the bunker is for green side shots only. It’s not built into the main range.

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All 4 courses each have their own putting green. But they are all Tif Eagle Bermuda and typically play similar speeds.
 
Approx 5000 sf putting green with 8 holes/small flags
Small chipping/pitching green (400 sf) with 1 hole
9 hole free pitch & putt course with holes ranging from 35 to 90 yds (about half with greenside bunkers)

I think its really nice considering its at a muni
 
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Large putting green with 6 holes, I think it is. Chipping is allowed, just no lofted shots. Usually a very fair representation of course putting speed.

Grass range is nice with flat and well maintained (but not exactly lush) hitting area. Mats are mandated at times. Plenty of target "greens" and well marked as to distance. Only qualm is that it's downhill. Level and expansive teeing area front to back but the range drops off. Flat is better to guage distance but I'm nitpicking here. I'm not a range guy and have only used it maybe 5-6 times in 3 years but I do like it very much.

Practice sand trap with small simulated green. Not bad but it's so close, adjacent yet still within the range area, that golfers use that green as just another target. No issue with that at all other than all the balls scattered about.

Not top shelf by any means but it's more than enough for most.
 
Little to nothing. The putting green is about 3 - 4 yards wide by 10 yards long. No bunker for practice. You can chip if you want to but obviously considering the size, it is very limited as to what kind of chip shots you can hit.
 
Our municipal course has a large double-decker range. Probably about 60 stalls and lots of targets. Two practice greens for chipping, pitching and bunker practice. A large putting green with about 10 holes. It's a pretty great set up. The course owned by the county has a range of about 25 stalls. Two chipping and pitching practice greens. One with bunkers and the other has a large surrounding grass area with different slopes and undulations, so you can work on a lot of different lies. The putting green is only about 40 feet wide, but long and has about a dozen holes.
 
Putting green, chipping area and sand

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I was speaking to one of my local Club Corp GM's this weekend about an upgrade they are thinking about doing and how needed it was. It got me thinking about how many courses have only a putting green and don't even allow chipping. Or have no bunkers to work with.

What does your local course offer for short game practice?

Eh, the short game area is decent, can back up to about 40 yards max plus a putting green and range.

This is an interesting topic because one big factor on whether a course goes from “good” to “great” in my mind is the chipping/practice area. If you have the room to chip or pitch 50+ yards, that REALLY makes a nice place to practice. Bonus points for 5+ pins to hit to on the green.


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My course has the best short game area in town, but we dont have a range LOL! We have a nice large 70 yards of fairway leading to a green with a big bunker to hit out of. It also slopes so there are places to flip, places to bump and run and a lot of good chipping spots. You can really practice every shot.
 
Putting green with several cut holes to putt at. Green is very large with varying undulation providing you options. They do allow chipping from off the green which I take advantage of. There is a bunker to practice out off, however it is oddly placed.


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