Driving range mats

[Golfaway]

The club where I play doesn't use driving range mats. Instead, you hit the ball from grass like that on the fairways. The problem is, most of the time the area designated to hit the ball from is studded with pivots from previous players and you could hardly find a good grass spot to put your ball on. So I was thinking of taking a mat with me to play the ball from.

I have some concerns though: I have never seen a real driving mat like the ones used in the driving ranges in the US. What are they made from? The mat I am considering playing on is made of something that is like wool but not really wool, I am not sure what its called in English, here we call it Moket or moquet. Will this affect my clubs in any negative way?? The mat is thick enough and soft.

Second thing, I think playing off a mat will eliminate fat shots, which is a huge problem of mine. Won't this be like deceiving myself? Because in a game, I will be playing of thee fairway and I will be still hitting fat, while on the driving range mat I will be hitting all the balls clean. What do you think???

[Mr3Putt]

The club where I play doesn't use driving range mats. Instead, you hit the ball from grass like that on the fairways.

Don't do it, especially if your misses are fat. You will be much better off practicing from real turf, whether it's grassy or not.

[Iowa Hawkeye]

I'd spend the ~$50 or so it would take to get this over to Egypt, it would be worth it, IMHO.

http://www.golfgalaxy.com/galaxy/pro...ffset=1&s;_id=0

[Lefty22]

Don't do it, especially if your misses are fat. You will be much better off practicing from real turf, whether it's grassy or not.

+1 mats are BAD - like Mr3putt says if your common miss is fat you will be MUCH better off hitting off even bare dirt than off a mat... Actually I'd lean toward that it doesn't matter what your common miss is; mats are bad.

[schapman]

I dream of grass for driving ranges. All the ones near me are mats except one that isn't open yet. My wrist has been really sore lately from hitting on mats too much.

[Zeph]

Don't do it, especially if your misses are fat. You will be much better off practicing from real turf, whether it's grassy or not.

The mats will cover a fat shot, yes, but it will in no way be close to a good shot, so you'll get more than enough feedback from a bad shot.

I only have mats to practice on, and when you learn how they react to different shots it's no problem using them for practice. A lot better than not practicing at all anyways.

[Prairie Golfer]

Thankfully, all of the driving ranges around me are grass ones.

I'll take a bare dirt lie to practice on over a mat.

[Garthmo]

Wish my course had a grass practice range, they went to mats years ago, but think they suck. nothing like practicing off the real thing.

[Carolinahooker]

I have a grass range by me as well. If I go late in the day it will be littered with divots. I use it as practice for bad lies. I can still put balls between divots to practice good lies as well.

[jlin453]

You could always use a tee - just tee it low

[Golfaway]

OK, I dropped off the mat idea and went to the range today. Awesome day. Hit about 60 balls with my irons, at least 55 of them were good shots, the straight ones were at least 50. And the good surprise, I finally gathered my courage and took out my driver. I hit 30 balls with my driver, 100% were successfull hits, successfull in the sense that the clubface made contact with the ball cleanly. Some were badly sliced of course, but a lot of them were straight and far, to my surprise.

[laconic517]

get the vijay mats!

[SaltyDog]

oh wow, my misses are fat shots too - lately i've been going to driving ranges, but they only allow to hit off mats, the grass won't be open until May due to weather or whatever...

well, it's been awful for me, on the range i'm fine, but I get in the course and i excavate the hell out of the course - the mats have been the worst thing for my game, waiting for the grass to be open....

[Zeph]

Do you hit it well on the mats? And I mean really well, not just getting it forward. If you hit the ball first with a downward stroke, the shot will come out much better than if you hit the mat first and bounce on to the ball. You will also feel it pretty good when this happens. The mats are not responsible for fat shots. They are more forgiving in terms of a fat shot, but it will be nowhere near a good shot.

[CG031]

Some of the mats at my local range mats are absolutely terrible. Lately no one has been there and it's great because they have been available. When you have to off the older mats, it's hard to even practice and focus, it's truly terrible.

[Zeph]

I've considered buying a private small mat I can carry around, are there are good mats out there?

[skwon11]

I concur with others that for me (not everybody) mats are terrible. I've been practicing a few times per week on a range with mats and feeling like I've been hitting well. I get a chance today at a range to hit off grass and... well... feels like I'm learning all over again. I'm going over every shot and every thing I've been working on (hip turn, no swaying, wrist action) trying to figure out what was wrong (hitting lots of short fat shots). Then finally the last 10 balls I'm hitting with some consistency. This is just my opinion and I'm sure others can hit off mats just fine and translate that over to grass... me... no... now I'd rather hit off dirt.

Question though... teeing it up real short on a mat... can somebody explain how this is better practice? If this can be done consistently isn't this the same as mats meaning... you're learning how to hit the ball off something abnormal (all or irons off tees vs. mats) when the real thing is grass? Is the goal in this case to get the compression feel without feeling the club bottom out on the mat (because it's on a tee now)?

[kafka01]

I've considered buying a private small mat I can carry around, are there are good mats out there?

I ordered a Truestrike mat - but i havent received it yet, i can write you feedback if you like when i got it.