Best Surface for Backyard "Driving Range"

[pittpanther]

During the last few months of picking up the sport, I have been practicing my swing in my yard using the practice wiffle balls. Since I am trying to learn to take divots, the yard are is starting to look pretty beat up.

I had an idea to basically remove the grass from a large area, and use it for practicing my stroke. Instead of grass that will look bad after a while, I was wondering what I could use as a surface instead.

Just bare dirt? Sand? Some other surface? What do you guys think?

[Sherpat]

I feel for ya. That exact same thing happened to me. My yard was starting to look like it had been Shocked And Awed by coalition troops from all the divots/fat shots. And hitting off hard pan sucks. Sand is ok...if you want to practice sand shots all day.

So I decided to get one of those THE Golf Mats being hawked by Vijay Singh. It's pretty good, in that you can hit down on the back of the ball without the shock to your arms (and club) that a normal flat mat can give when you do anything other than sweep. Granted, you can't SEE what your divot looks like so if it's that important to you...maybe you can buy a strip of sod every week?

Good luck, whatever you come up with!

:)