Making WNY Golf Better: Practice Area @ Sheridan Park

If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s inventing a new series for BuffaloGolfer.Com. We’ve all mused about ways to improve golf in Buffalo-Niagara. Deerwood improved WNY golf a decade ago by adding a third nine…Bravo, North Tonawanda! I’m going to look at Sheridan Park today in the first of a series of installments on how to improve golf in western New York.This is an easy one. Riddle me this: why can’t you practice chip shots at Brighton or Sheridan? Insurance risk is my guess. There’s no room at Brighton to build a chipping and bunker practice green, but Sheridan has loads of room. West of the parking lot, down in the hollow, is wasted acreage that could easily house a chipping and pitching green. I’m not asking for a 100-yard long fairway to be mowed, just a volcano of sorts, along and slightly-elevated green with 3 bunkers for short-game practice. Step up, Tonawanda…you have the best municipal course in the area. Provide a place for your junior golfers to learn to chip, blast and pitch.