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