Patrick,
I didn't mean terrible condition-I meant terrible design-as in afterthought or just way too much going on . Give the player room and area to learn the basic shots,then use his/her imagination on the course.(or at a more elaborate area such as Bill suggests, but few clubs can afford)
The practice area at Forest Hills in Augusta (2 blocks from my house as a kid-and the home of Bobby Jones "other "win in 1930), was a great example of an excellent practice area at a public facility.
It was a large putting green with gradual undulations throughout,but with pretty good undulations on the edges on 2 sides.It allowed room to putt (most players),chips,and basic pitches. Also,there was ample room to develop imagination,by chipping/pitching to the pins near the edges where the undulations were.
It was set up in a way where the chipping and pitching did not really clash with the putting,and worked very well at a busy public facility. It was a gathering place for all the local area short game practicers,and resulted in quite a few evening wagers,often way past dark.
Alas, a recent renovation segmented it into narrow fast,greens with nasty undulation where the only shot available is a flop or putt off a tight lie. Consequently,no one uses it and if they did it would be quite dangerous. I took my kids up there last Thanksgiving and we left after 10 minutes-it was just too difficult.
We went to the First Tee facility accross the street and it was worse-an elevated,severely contoured green stimping at about 11 so every ball rolled to the same place-either over or back to our feet. Surely somebody at The First Tee would realize this was a major design flaw.
We ended up chipping balls on the range into buckets and had a blast.