Best practice putting green...?

[RJ_Daley]

How many of you really appreciate a great practice green to putter around before your round, and appreciate it being maintained consistent with the rest of the greens.  

Some of the best I've seen and a whole lot of fun are:

1.  Wild Horse GC, Gothenburg Nebraska, Axeland and Proctor.  I love to play "Ring around the prairie" there...

2.  Country Club of Charleston (3 separate greens), Seth Raynor (although I don't know if he actually designed them)  I give this setting very high marks for atmosphere.

3.  Bayside, Ogallala Nebraska, Axeland and Proctor, not fully grown in yet, but looks like it will be similar to Himalayas...

I have plenty of other nominees, but just thought I'd try to kick this off...

[Lynn_Shackelford]

I love competitive putting contests.  

Desert Highlands, Arizona, had a great one.  I wonder if they still do.  High maintenance and I presume little use.

Yeamans Hall, great mounding and right next to the first tee.

[Aaron]

The practice putting green at Legends Resort was pretty fun...it was HUGE, and whoever constructed it did not go easy on the undulations.

You also have to love the large putting green at Pinehurst, along with their whole practice area. Pinehurst always gets my heart beating...I love that place!

Aaron

[David Kelly]

I used to love the main putting green at World Woods but I was there in July and the condition of the green has deteriorated.  It seems to be afflicted with the same fungus problem that the Pine Barrens greens have and there were patches of dirt throughout the green.

[Peter Galea]

Crystal Springs had a rectangular putter elevated and 10 feet from the pro shop. The front of the shop used to have a large bay window; you could use the window as a mirror to check your stance and posture. A professional croquet match was held on it.
Pretty cool.

The tiny upper putter at the entrance to the shop at Spyglass.

The long skinny green at Stanford. To think Tom Watson used to putt there at midnight in the lights of his Volkswagen!

Bay Hill with the palm tree in the middle.

Burlingame Country Club, set in front of the mansion amidst stately oaks.

My Gawd, I love a good practice green!

[JamieS]

The practice green at Ridgewood CC(NJ) is great, large with alot of contour. Also, doesn't the ninth green at Oakmont blend into the practice putting area at the back? That is a feature you won't see too often.

[Jay]

There is nothing like having an 8,000 sq. ft practice green 25 feet from where you work (my second home).

[Ken_Cotner]

St. Andrews, 'nuff said (but is it a "practice" putting green?)

Ken "What is taking TommyN so long to answer this one?" Cotner

[Mike_Cirba]

Pocono Manor - Fun to take the whole family out for putting contests on incredible swales.

Unfortunately, the two courses there do not live up to the same standard.

[BillV]

Tom Doak designed an Alps-y putting green for the members at Shinnecock (One of whom knew it and overheard me on the patio discussing Doak!) which is severely contoured.  So much else to see out there it gets missed.

As of my last visit Lynn, the green you describe was intact at Desert HIghlands.

[JSS]

Oakmont, the practice green is connected to the 18th green.

Bandon and Pacific Dunes practice facility.

I've always liked he practice green at San Francisco Golf Club.  Next to the 1st tee, you feel like you are in the middle of the course.

[Greg Stebbins]

Thank you Jaime for mentioning Ridgewood's putting green.  My friends and I have played many games of "stymies" on that green that have lasted for hours.  I have yet to have found a better practice green for a putting contest.  

[Patrick_Mucci]

RJ Daley,

Jamie and Greg mentioned Ridgewood's main putting green, which is great, especially when they set up a putting course during their Painted Woods member guest.

[RJ_Daley]

Patrick, as much as I love interesting practice putting greens, after todays round it is quite evident that I have not spent nearly enough time enjoying them....  

[Jeff_Mingay]

The practice green at The Golf Club is also connected to the 18th green.

Rod Whitman built a nice practice green on the South nine at Wolf Creek here in Alberta. (In fact, either Proctor or Axeland -- or both -- might have been involved with that one as well.)

Last year, Bruce Hepner and Brian Slawnick built a new practice green at Essex G&CC mimicking contours on the greens on the golf course proper. Now, that's a novel idea!

[Bill_McBride]

The practice green at Oakmont is the back half of the ninth green...you pass it on the way to the first tee.  It is so steep you are always worried about dropping a ball which then rolls down onto the actual green in the middle of a group putting!  I was putting there one afternoon when some young flatbelly blasted a three wood onto, and over, the ninth.  Rolled up near my practice balls.  Needless to say he three putted, which was actually quite a feat given that there was no way to stop the putt down that slope on the green.  His second "putt" was a nice chip to five feet.  One of the few practice greens I've ever seen where the stimp was an accurate precursor of what you see on the greens to come!

[Mike Kane]

Lynn and Bill V,

They still have the full eighteen holes complete with scorecards.  I was there a few weeks ago.  

[Ben C. Dewar]

Oakmont, classic setup.  I had a ball come close to hitting me while putting me.

For setting and landscaping, Mississauga GC.

[Paul_Daley]

The best putting-green I have ever seen is found at Royal Melbourne. I love it for three reasons: It is so big, you can have a game of matchplay putting for ages before teeing off, it mimics what you can expect out on the course - both for speed and slope, and it is cleverly positioned
half-way between the pro-shop and clubhouse.

[kilfara]

No, the Himalayas doesn't count as a practice putting green. It's great fun, but it stimps at about 4 or 5.  

We just played at Walton Heath, and I'd give that one a big thumbs up - very spacious, well contoured, markers laid out for a putting contest if you're that way inclined. No rough or fairway, either, between the green and the concrete path by the clubhouse...you know full well it's a PUTTING green, because there's no place to chip from!

I also liked the complex at Desert Highlands to which Lynn referred. Great fun, that.

By the way, for those of you who haven't experienced a proper one, the "putting contest" is an art unto itself. My college teammates and I would play several fun variants of this:

--Play where nobody can mark their ball, and the person furthest from the hole *must* go first. Two-shot penalty for anyone who touches someone else's ball with a putt. Balls deflected into the hole count as though they'd been holed originally - don't replace them. (The more participants, the better this one works.)

--A two-player game which uses two holes 15-20 feet apart; each player has two balls. Putt all ball toward the hole. Three points if you hole one putt and your opponent doesn't; six points if you hole both putts and your opponent doesn't. Three points if you hole both and your opponent holes one. One point if no putts are holed and one of your balls is closer to the hole than both of your opponents'; two points if no putts are holed and both of your balls are closer to the hole than both of your opponents'. Play to 21.

--And so on...you can really have a lot of golfing fun and never leave the practice green.

Cheers,
Darren

[Gib_Papazian]

Bill, I actually played with a guy at Oakmont who skulled his sand wedge to the very bac of the putting clock on #9. The pin was front left. . . guess what? Draino.