I have a 100 ft garden and wonder what I should be practicing.
At present I use my lob wedge to try and hit a hoolahoop in the garden.

100 feet is only a little over 33 yards, lob is about all you can use for that distance!
If you cut the grass really tight you can practice bump/run?

Yeah, lob wedge or trying to be creative with other clubs is about all you can do. Can practice pitching with a 7I or 5I so if you're ever needing to keep something low under trees and maybe slam into the bank around the green, you'd have an idea of how hard to hit it.

Wouldn't a practice putting green be good for a yard like that? My father has one in the corner of the backyard. My mother had it made for him as an anniversary gift a few years back.

Sweet gift!

I was thinking that is pretty short to be practicing teeing off. You will lose more balls that way.
I like the idea of putting on the green. It would be a great gift and you could practice putting. I know a lot of times I have a harder time with the close shot and I would love to practice putting in the yard.

GEt some Birdie Balls, and practice your short game with them. They only fly about 30 % of the distance of a regular golf ball. so you should be able to practice all your short game shots with the Birdie Balls. I've got some, and they work well for all shots from a short chip to a full size FLOP shot. Anything but putting.

I practice short shots in my yard, but when I say yard I mean field really since we have about 20 acres of land, some of which is wooded. I feel lucky because my friends who live in the city do not have this option.

Pink, for a short while I lived in a family house that had 22 acres in upper NC, including the long field beside the house. I always had visions of grading that thing down and making a driving range. but I was only there a year while building our main house so it wasn't worth it, but the thought crossed my mind...I would enjoy having that much land again to just go out and hit balls into.

Oh, I love the idea of a backyard putting area. I live in a house with windows that poke out just about the ground, though - any tips on having the kids avoid those, aside from pointing them in the opposite direction?

When I was growing up, my dad just hung a big quilt up in the back yard and pounded balls into that for hours. I had a net and mat I used most of last year, so I'm all for having something like that to conveniently get practice in.

I never thought about having something to hit into. That way you can actually hit hard and work on your drive. I was thinking you would just lose your balls if you just keep hitting the long balls.

PRACTICING IN THE BACK YARD IS GREAT I LIVE NEXT TO A CHURCH THAT HAS A SOFT BALL FIELD AND I HIT FROM MY YARD INTO THE SOFTBALL FIELD.LETS ME HIT UP TO 150 YDS. WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A PUTTING GREEN

I find that practicing around my house screws with my came because I get afraid of breaking anything and start decel-ing in my swing.

Try it in the center of your back yard instead of in your China closet.

I laughed at that Bill, thanks for the good laugh at 2 in the morning.

What are you doing practicing at 2 in the morning?

87; Try practicing in your back yard with Birdie Balls. They only fly about 1/3 the distance of golf balls, and you don't have to worry abuot breaking the China.

Like the idea of a putting green - apart from the fact that having 3 children under 6 will mean it will be trashed in about 30 seconds!
87vert - I always play with the house behind me - worse case is I hit the neighbours greenhouse (but only if I really shank a shot!
Don - have got some air balls that go no distance at all, so I can get the driver practice in
Scott - like the idea about hitting a low 7 iron - just need to find a way to stop the ball before it hits the shed in the back of the garden

The reason I was thinking of this was that most amateurs dont practice the short game enough and was wondering what I could do to improve (without spending any money at the range - seeing there is this recession going on )

Thanks everybody for these ideas!

Kevin

Kevin; That's the nice thing about practicing your short game. You can bring your own golf balls to the range and hit shots as long as you want, and it's totally FREE. You can work on your putting, chipping, bunker shots, and short pitchs, all for free.

Kev, I second Don's idea. Take a shag bag of some decent balls and hit those. mark them up well so you'll know yours versus theirs. Also, at my range, usually there's lots of balls by the chipping greens already so you could go and practice for free.

If the green area is decent and will give you reasonable reactions like a real green, the you should use at least decent balls similar to what you play. that way you'll get a real feel of what your shots would be doing if you were playing for real.

It sucks that I dont have much of a yard. I have a side yard with about 8ft in between the two houses that is about 20yrds long. Im mostly worried about the basement windows (broke one with a hockey puck but that was from inside the basement)

My backyard is a big hill with a bunch of trees. I would sometimes hit throwaway balls up there till one hit a tree and came back to me. LOL

I might try some of those soft balls but usually I go to the ball fields around the corner and play around there.

87, I've finally figured it out. Your real fear is an errant shot will bounce back and break your bong.

Unfortunately Scott & Don the 3 ranges near me are just that a range - no bunker/green/short area.
Just a shed at one end and open area to thwack rubbish balls into!
The closest putting green is at the local course (that doesnt have anything else bar a putting green and the course itself) and the pro there gets very grumpy at people going onto the course to practice as he thinks people would just play the course instead for free!
Might try and go there on Thursday to practice the putting - as only have 25 days to go before I have a weeks golf holiday

Kevin

Kevin; That's too bad about the pro at the course not liking it if you practice on HIS green. Is this an UK thing? or is it just this one course? All the courses that I play here, don't care if I practice on their putting green or chipping green or bunker. I've practiced on their facililtys for hours on end , and never had any complaints.

I agree with Scott on ball quality for your practice. I have a ball retriever tube that holds 14 balls, and it's full of Tour quality balls, just for practiceing my chipping around the greens. I want the same feel and spin charartistics as the ball I play, so I use Tour balls only for my pracitice sessions for chipping and pitch shots onto the green, For bunker practice I use their range balls or my cheap yellow practice balls. The landing area by the bunker is more or less a HILL, so how the ball would react on landing is not anything like it would on a green, so what ball I use doesn't matter of bunker shots. What I NEED to do is find a practice bunker with a green next to it I can use to see what my Tour balls do after they land. That would help a lot, but for now just getting my ball to land near the flag on the hill near this bunker will have to do.

Kevin; Try talking to the head instructor about a SHORT GAME LESSON. and then ask about practiceing your short game, AFTER your lesson. They might feel a bit differently about you practiceing on their course, if you take a lesson first. Might be worth asking about. Let's face it. What good is the lesson, if you can't practice what they teach. Tell them this, and see what they say. If they still don't wan't you to practice there, tell them you'll be taking your lessons someplace else as well.

I have 2 course very close to me
1) is a municipal, which has issues with people going onto the course without paying so the pro is a bit twitchy
2) is a private course, whose members are complete and utter #@%@#. The type that come over and ask to see your members badge before you park your car!
so because of these issues, I have limited options!

re balls I currently use balls that I have already used in a round and are slightly beaten up.

where I used to live there was a brilliant complex that had a range, bunkers, greens etc and you could be there for days if you wanted and nobody cared. So its just a south Birmingham thing!

Kevin

Kev, sell your house, buy one with acres of land and build your house PLUS a driving range with bunkers and greens. Then you can charge people to come practice at your place....