Why do so few courses have decent areas to practice chipping?

[Diece]

I have a membership at a par 3 course and pretty much use the entire course for pitch shots chipping bunker you name it, there practice greens are alright but people always putt on them...The greens on the course are in excellent condition and they allow me to do pretty much anything including making my own shots when not many people are on the course. I suppose I am pretty fortunate.

[Motown88]

I feel like I grew up in a very nice area of Michigan now since I always had courses that I could practice my short game on.  Now since joining the service I still have courses near me that offer these amenities.  I assumed this was normal among public and private courses but I guess it isn't

[Chas]

Originally Posted by Diece

I have a membership at a par 3 course and pretty much use the entire course for pitch shots chipping bunker you name it, there practice greens are alright but people always putt on them...The greens on the course are in excellent condition and they allow me to do pretty much anything including making my own shots when not many people are on the course. I suppose I am pretty fortunate.

This is surely the best way to improve your short game - forget about chipping onto the couch .  These days I do much better (versus par) on par 72 courses than par 60, say, i.e. mostly par 3's.  Why? Because on par 3's I'm either on the green with a loooong putt, or somewhere near the green faced with a chip - usually a difficult one over a bunker or something.  These two situations are the worst aspects of my game at the moment.  Whereas on a part 4 or 5 I'm often looking at

[Tuflehundon]

I guess I am fairly lucky for a couple of reasons. Pretty much every course near me has a putting green, and a chipping green. The course I normally practice at has a gold school for kids, so the practice area is really nice. The is a putting green, chipping green, and even a longer range chipping green (out to 50yrds). And there are tons of driving range lanes. I just had to learn when not to go there. When the school is there, the chipping and putting greens are packed.

The other advantage I have is working from home. So I can go whenever I want to, as long as I get my work done. So I can schedule my practice sessions around times that they aren't busy.

[zeg]

Originally Posted by ApocG10

All the courses I played had a chipping and putting green. But chipping is something you can practice anywhere. You need minimal room, and you can't really hurt anything. I practice chipping at home every day. Thouygh i'll soon have my own green.

That's sort of true---you can practice your chipping stroke on whatever sort of grass you can find and practice distance control. This is helpful, but it doesn't give you a chance to practice accounting for what happens after the ball hits the ground. Particularly if the green is sloped, I find that chips react differently from putts so while some of the reading is the same, it really takes separate practice. The other problem is that most grass you can find is, at best, like the rough. As a result of this, my short game from the fairway is markedly worse than from the rough.

[Fourputt]

In the Denver area, most courses seem to have both a dedicated putting green where chipping is prohibited, and a short game practice area with a decent green, practice bunkers, and mounding to allow for practicing from all sorts of lies.  Even though my home course has an okay chipping area, I used to stop at a different course on tournament days because they had a nicer practice area, and it was more or less on my way to my home course.  The one I stopped at was also a part of our recreation district, and it was actually supported by the profits my home course returned to the district coffers, so I didn't feel at all guilty about using it when I wasn't playing there.

[Chas]

Note to Torrey Pines management: please consider converting one of the two large practice greens to chipping only - no putting.  I don't really care which one.  You would be doing the golfing public a favor.  Why?  Because, while many players (and tourists) would initially be annoyed at the restriction on their putting practice (both putting greens are usually pretty busy), they would discover that their game improved rather dramatically after spending time on The Chipper*.   'Be a Leader' and do it for the good of the game.  Show that you care ....

Another note: you might want to increase the area of the fringe grass around the new chipping green, for obvious reasons.  You could increase the size of the putting-only green, reduce the size of The Chipper and add the needed fringe - all in the same magnificent acreage in front of the clubhouse.

We might then even get the chance to watch some of the pros practicing their chipping before teeing off in your peerless Tournament every January, right there on the TV.  Would that not be an edifying sight?

Thanking you in advance,

Charles.

President and CEO,

Chipping Defence League,

Chipping Norton.

*official designation for the new green area, suitably posted.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by zeg

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApocG10

All the courses I played had a chipping and putting green. But chipping is something you can practice anywhere. You need minimal room, and you can't really hurt anything. I practice chipping at home every day. Thouygh i'll soon have my own green.

That's sort of true---you can practice your chipping stroke on whatever sort of grass you can find and practice distance control. This is helpful, but it doesn't give you a chance to practice accounting for what happens after the ball hits the ground. Particularly if the green is sloped, I find that chips react differently from putts so while some of the reading is the same, it really takes separate practice. The other problem is that most grass you can find is, at best, like the rough. As a result of this, my short game from the fairway is markedly worse than from the rough.

Without seeing the runout and learning to judge it, chipping practice might as well be done off a mat into a net. Every chipping club reacts in a unique way because they all generate slightly different amounts of spin especially usefull when not chipping from perfectly flat ground.

[ejimsmith]

Originally Posted by Jimdangles

My "home" course or the one I live closest to has a free chipping area that I love. Its like 50 yards long too so its more than I could ask for. When I have my best scores my practice there really shows but it doesnt always show up :(

Hi Jimbo,  What's your home course?  I live in the OC as well, and am looking for another place to practice.  Thanks!

[Paradox]

thats one thing I wish my course would add...a ranged "fairway" area to work on pitching.  I mean..the practice tees are all bentgrass but you don't really have a green to work towards when using those.

All the area around the chipping/putting/bunker green is just rough.

[Chas]

Furyk might recently have benefited from practice at a green like that.  Practicing chipping from deeper grass and avoiding 'undercutting' the ball (ballspeed much lower than expected) is something I need to do.   I really hate when that happens ....