Short Game practice in West LA (advice requested)

Hey all,

As some of you might know, I am a student at UCLA and live a few blocks from the campus. Next quarter, each school day starts for me at 10AM: that is, I need to be on campus by that time. Unfortunately, this means I don't have a full day free, as I have had in many past quarters, which I used to have regular weekday games or practice time.

Now, I'm an early riser and I feel better on 4 or 6 hours of sleep than I do on 10, and I go to sleep fairly early (11pm, give or take). Being out of my place by 6 or 7 isn't a problem for me. I want to practice my short game at least twice during the week next quarter, on mornings, since I'm not playing and my swing has seemingly held up during my time away. That and short game being both cheaper to practice and more effective on the score.


Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what the most effective use of my time is. Let's say I've got 2.5 hours, including round-trip transit time. I've brainstormed a few ideas, and I'm open to others. I figured the number of golfers in the L.A. area on this board might lead to someone having a good idea for me. Feel free to comment on this even if you aren't in the area, as I've tried to provide a good description of these places.

In no particular order:

1. Armand Hammer Holmby Park . Pitch-and-putt course, $3. I figure I can go there with a Sunday bag, my 3 wedges, and my putter and practice my wedge distance shots. This is the closest to me, physically, and I can get there by back roads.
Maybe I can do drills on their practice green after the "round." I don't remember there being one last time, but the website lists one.

2. Rancho Park Golf Course - practice area. Big putting green, but usually busy. I'd probably fall into a routine of hitting long distance putts and not into doing a drill, which would be tough with the number of people using those greens. Their chipping area isn't so great either. Not much room, not much grass, usually water-filled cups. And I hate that driving range, but I'm not here for long game work right now.

3. Rancho Park Golf Course - par 3 course. $7, 9 holes, I've never played, so I don't know how good it is. Its scorecard seems to indicate that I would get to use everything from my gap wedge to my 4-iron. The website implies that there is a practice putting green near the par-3 course, and maybe I could use that after the round to do drills, in addition to warming up.

4. Veterans' Golf Course - I played here my first year or so of playing. 9 x Par-3, and I used all the irons, wedges, and a wood when I played. The nice bonus there was free replays, so I used to play whites once and blues once, to use all the clubs in my bag. I don't know the current pricing structure. Pricier than the other options, but proceeds benefit the VA, so I'm much more fine with it.

5. Drive north to Balboa/Woodley or south to Lakes at El Segundo and use their short game area. This cuts a good 40-60 minutes off my practice time, but these places do have good and "free" short game areas with plenty of room to hit, but I'll be spending more time in transit to get there. All three of these courses have very nice practice putting greens.

{ 6. UCLA claims to have a short game practice area open to all students, and does. I haven't seen it open since 2006, except when archery was going on there. There is also a putting green open to all, but only Fridays 12-2. And, for obvious reasons, I can't use the team's facilities. }


Please let me know which of these you would suggest I do, which to avoid, and if you have other ideas for where I can practice, in case I've forgotten something.

In San Francisco there are at least two courses that offer free chipping areas that you can spend as much time as you want practicing chipping around the green and also pitching from around 30-40 yards and one offers bunker practice area, again for free. you need to find a golf course that offers no cost chipping areas.

There are a few courses with free and unlimited time short game areas. The problem is that the ones with free areas around me are:

- Rancho Park - bad chipping area. Not much room or grass. - Woodley/Balboa/Lakes a El Segundo - 40+ minute round-trip, and I need to be back by 10 for school.

Veteran's is your best bet for shots between 100 and 175 yards. Their practice green is in good shape, although you can't practice chipping.

Holmby is great for shots between 40 to 75 yards. The greens are worthless however...so you'll basically be practicing your pitching. Also, there's a lot of little kids around, so the fear of accidentally hitting them adds some stress.

Rancho 3 par is mats only. They have a great practice green, and a fairly decent chipping green...complete with bunker.

If I were you, I would alternate between Veteran's and Holmby.

Thank you! I didn't know that about the mats at Rancho, so I will avoid that accordingly. But I will check out the short game practice area at the par-3s next time I'm at the course, so I at least can see it.

I didn't get a chance to look at Holmby's greens last time I was there (I took a walk to see the overall area), so thanks for the heads-up. I'm not too worried about kids at 730am.

Shindig, I'm glad you are this motivated to work on your short game. It looks to me like you are going to have to do a mix between one that is a longer drive for the quality practice and pick the less desirable closer one so it's more convenient.

The other question is what and how are you going to practice. I wrote a book that is a system for how to improve at your short game called Golf's Red Zone Challenge . Part of my philosophy is explained by clicking on the following link, Red Zone Short Game Instruction . It has a link to the right if you want to buy the book through amazon.com and it has a pretty extensive set of video lessons.

Good luck with your golf game this year.