Practice tees and short shot greens

[Willie_Dow]

Should todays courses demand the availability of these features?


Many of the older club courses do not offer these facilities, and are having a tough time finding land available to offer a practice, or warming up area.


Should they redesign the layout to accommodate this feature?

[Steve Burrows]

Winged Foot recently made some changes to their short game practice facility.  What was once only a MASSIVE putting green with a single practice bunker is now and expanded complex with a (still large) dedicated putting green and a series of other greens and practice bunkers that more accurately reflect the kinds of shots you might find on the real courses.  The work required no redesign of the courses themselves, only a decision to make better use of the space they already had available to them.  And whereas the practice range for full shots still leaves a lot to be desired, I'm guessing the membership would rather do without such facilities than make wholesale design changes to either course on property.[size=78%]  [/size]

Edit: Images added


Before:

After:

[Thomas Dai]

Any club without a decent short game practice area needs to take a long, hard look at itself.
atb

[MCirba]

Not if it's going to compromise the architecture of the golf course in a negative way Willie.  Too many vintage courses have been diminished by the later addition of a range or other practice area.  We have a number of them in the Philly area that you're quite familiar with including the Lurker's club.

[Kyle Harris]

Not if it's going to compromise the architecture of the golf course in a negative way Willie.  Too many vintage courses have been diminished by the later addition of a range or other practice area.  We have a number of them in the Philly area that you're quite familiar with including the Lurker's club.

This.

The silly thing being the current iteration of that hole plays to a fantastic putting green 50 yards right of where it needs to be played from, and the present location of that fairway could be the range.

[David Amarnek]

MCirba and Kyle Harris,
Changes are afoot, courtesy of Gil Hanse.
We'll see what develops!

[MCirba]

Thanks for the update, David.   Glad to hear that some changes may be afoot.

[Willie_Dow]

Thanks for your thoughts !


I'm in New England and a favorite course of mine is not doing very well and it seems to me it lacks P/T & SSG. 


Members are going elsewhere.

[Pete Lavallee]

River Valley?

[Willie_Dow]

Close Pete, but not either "River Valley' or Salters.


Would hate to wake up the membership.


Just looking for advice on how to proceed !

[MCirba]

Willie,

Is there adequate room to build one without signicantly altering the existing golf course?

[Willie_Dow]

Mike:


To answer your question would take more than my mind can answer.  Like all of us, we think we know how, but to get an agreement by committee is an unanswerable ??

[Pete Lavallee]

Hmm, would they have a scallop shell as their logo? If so, there is an area behind the irrigation pond on the right of #1 that is used as a range, they could certainly build something there.

[Willie_Dow]

Pete:


You're getting closer, but the shell course has refitted itself quite effectively in this regard, and seems to be doing well with itself.


Have not played there yet, but looking forward to a "maybe".

[Andrew Buck]

Thanks for your thoughts !


I'm in New England and a favorite course of mine is not doing very well and it seems to me it lacks P/T & SSG. 


Members are going elsewhere.

Obviously this is going to be region specific, but I have a hard time believing there would be a significant shift in membership based *primarily* on the inclusion or exclusion of a short game area, given how little I observe anyone practicing the short game. 

I could see it being a secondary factor, but I would thing the quality of course, ethos of membership, location, cost and social aspect would all rate higher for almost all club members, with the only possible exception being a member who is highly competitive on a regional level or has a highly competitive junior golfer in the family. 

I think it's short game areas are a great attribute, and if the land and funds are there they are highly beneficial, but it's hard for me to imagine someone changing clubs based primarily on that factor. 

[Willie_Dow]

Andrew:


Agree with you on the shot shot analysis for keeping a member sold on paying his dues.


But the long game needs a warm up period, and a place to hit balls before he goes to the first tee.  There are too many courses out there today that have this facility available, and the SSG is just frosting on the cake - so to speak.

[JJShanley]

But the long game needs a warm up period, and a place to hit balls before he goes to the first tee.  There are too many courses out there today that have this facility available, and the SSG is just frosting on the cake - so to speak.

I like to hit a couple dozen balls before I go out, but if I don't have time, or the course has only a bunker, I hit bunker shots.


I do that to combine full swings, with the shot I'll likely need given that I haven't warmed up.   

[Willie_Dow]

Your reply reminds me of a golfing buddy, almost 90, who shoots below his age so many times that he forgets WHY


He always uses the P/T before a round, and still swings a scythe in Maine to keep his back in order.