I very much think you're right.
My course has a practise green but to be honest it's not worth the time. It's mown differently, is smaller, and the quality of the grass is not the same.
I think what I need to do is to - on maybe 1 or 2 days a week - totally forget my obsession about playing 18 holes every day, and just go to the course in the evening, walk round the greens, stay out of peoples way, and just spend a couple of hours chipping, pitching and putting.
The legend of the club is the guy that I'm doing the foursomes knockout with, and he regularly goes up early in the morning and walks his dog around the course with a tennis racquet and ball, just working out the lie of the banks and slopes, and on the greens, literally just rolls the tennis ball around and sees what happens to it.
And - you know what?- whilst it wouldn't work for everyone on every course, to me it seems like such a simple and brilliant idea.
So - memo to self - on Wednesday; 9 holes, not 18, but 20 minutes on each green, shared between off-green chips from all round, 30-50 yard pitches from all round, and putts from all round.
Good call, mate - that's really cleared that up in my head!
