Nick,

Two bunkers, one for greenside practice and another for 10-20 yd shots.  Enough space for practicing up to 50 yard pitches.  Downhill, uphill and sidehill lies available at various distances.  A green big enough to practice pitch and runs along with the floppers.

That would be a dream.

Nick,

Here is my favorite short game area, it is located at Dallas National Golf Club.  There are 2 large putting greens, 5 short game greens, 6 bunkers, 2 teeing areas and an enless number of different types of shots that you can hit from 5 to 100 yards.  

I think I've posted this before... might even still have an image, too.

I really miss the acreage dedicated to the short game at my first club, The Bridegwater Club near Indianapolis.  The facility started out as just as practice facility, range, and 9-course.  Those features remained when they expanded to a full course and facility.

The short game area is incredible.  Six different greens, with one that has a dedicated teeing area for practicing short fairway pitches.  Two other greens share a shaved valley for pitching & chipping up slopes onto greens.

See the short game area in the upper left hand corner of this image:

I played the par three course at Colorado GC this summer.  It is not just intended to go and get a quick nine in but to practice on. Wish  I had some pics but it was just terrific.  

I have a lot of experience with a very badly designed short game practice area. This was at the golf team facility at the University of Oklahoma.

The problem? The designer forgot that the front, sides, and back of a real green on a real golf course tend to be different. And, importantly, most short game shots are played from the front or sides of the green, and much less frequently from over the back.

The designer at OU tilted the green towards the near edge of the property - so, essentially, the area in "front" of the green was cut off within 5 yards by a berm and the property line. There was no room to play shots from in front of the green, where most short game shots actually occur.

The "back" of the green opened up to the driving range - except that it was higher by about 4 feet, and sloped away, and covered with rough, rendering it mostly blind and nearly useless. There was no place from which to hit realistic shots.

So my advice would be, construct your practice area to replicate real greens and real golf holes. An englarged version of something similar to a green on your course might be a good idea. Keep the front, sides, and back of teh green in perspective.

That will give you the chance to practice shots that you'll actually face on your course or any other golf coruse. After all, that's the whole point, right?

Jimmy, I agree that Kinloch has a great short game practice area.  The last time I was there I spent a wonderful hour messing around on it.

Nick,
  I know that we chatted about this a little a couple weeks ago. I would make sure that your chipping area has options for uneven lies (uphill and downhill)  and make sure that the green is similar to your greens at SQ, meaning have a backstop or two. I'd also make sure that you have a bunker in the 40-50 yard range as that's the hardest shot in golf. I would think that 35,000 square feet should do it, though if you have more land, make it bigger. Can you do something like this....

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2938316140061904185rFBWoJ

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Colonial CC
Ft. Worth, TX

My Questions are:

What should be incorporated in a great short game area?
What courses have the best short game practice areas?

I was just at Stanford Golf Course the other day and they are building what looks like one of the most amazing practice areas I have seen.  Its "L" shaped and is on about 70 acreas.  Its designed by RTJII who lives close by and is an alum.  Whats amazing is that certain areas of the practice area will have different grass, so if the team is going to Florida they can practice on Bermuda.  I want to say they 3 or 4 different types of grass.  I wish I could get an ariel or plan to put up but its comprised of about 7 different greens and maybe 20 bunkers and allows players to practice North-South or East-West or opposite.  Only golf team members and special alums are allowed to play, no students.

Its more to the right of the 2nd and new 3rd hole.  The bad side is they needed to revise the course on 2 holes which to the loyalists of George Thomas is somewhat disappointing.  When I played there about a month ago it was almost finished, just letting the grass grow in.

I've found Arthur Hills courses to often have excellent short game areas.  This is one in Florida that is massive:

There is a great facility at Willow Creek Country Club, north of Houston. It's right next to the clubhouse and provides you every possible shot within about 80 yards.

Carnegie Abbey has a nice short game practice facility.(however for my 4 months there I saw around 3 or 4 members acctually use it )

It was great for my Juniors. The set up consisted of 4 different tees with 3 different greens. The tees surrounded the greens which provided a variety of yardages. I would set up tournaments for the kids to play, and set up a 9 hole course accordingly. It was great because the kids were acctually able to play the course and score. Maybe their parents should take notes.

I think that a good short game area relys on the grees. If the greens are tricked out and most importantly slope away from the player than that green is nooo good. The player is not able to see results. I also like to see bunkers. Place them greenside to offer the player bunker practce. This also provides a challenge for the player, and he is not just beating balls.

If I were designing one and had the space, I would include a couple bunkers in between the tees and greens to practice those longer bunker shots.

Mowing is important. Fringe, Tight lies, rough, fairway, create it all--give the player the opportunity to practice what is out there.