Practicing at Home

[shermanM4A1]

Sometimes, especially during the winter, I don't really feel like going to the driving range. However, I still want to practice. Is there any way to practice my golf swing and/or putting in my backyard at home, without purchasing fancy equipment?

(By the way, I don't plan on actually hitting actual golf balls, as I don't want to risk hitting them into my neighbor's backyard.)

[putput]

you can use the little foam balls, but don’t expect it to help you at all since any wind will change its direction even if your trying ot hit it 10 yards. Unfortunately if your wanting to practice and receive any good feed back your gonna have to get some equipment, as just using foam balls will help you hit the ball.

[wrx_junki]

I just take practice swings at home. Maybe look at a mirror while I do it but doesn't seem to reflect my swing on the range/course.

[Comeback City]

I have a putting cup that was like $7 at Golfsmith. You can just get a cup or marker or whatever and put to that...you need some carpet indoors to work on putting though. It's not going to be a typical putting surface but you work your putting stroke there...

For your swing, I guess you'd just take some practice swings.

[Zeph]

I don't like putting on anything but a real green. The grass is too high and the mats does not have the right feel.

Chipping is great to do in the backyard. You don't need much space and don't risk hitting the neighbours window.

I've bought a golf net which I practice full swings on. Works very well, but I can't hit the shortest irons as they would fly over. You never get the feedback of the ball flight, but I take the feelings and swing thoughts from the range to the net and can work on it without seeing the ball fly.

[muggs]

I'm thinking about buying one of those practice nets, but I'm wondering if I could just buy some netting and rig something up myself for a lot less than the $160+ price tag I've seen on most of those nets.

Anyone know of a website that sells golf practice type netting?

[opie]

Much to my wife's dismay, our front yard is perfect for chipping. Nice short mowed bermuda grass. I put out 5 gallon buckets at 5,10,15 and 20 yards away and drop 20 balls or so and try to fly it into the buckets to get a good feel for my distances

[Mr3Putt]

I'm thinking about buying one of those practice nets, but I'm wondering if I could just buy some netting and rig something up myself for a lot less than the $160+ price tag I've seen on most of those nets.

You can get the nets for way less than $160. Here's one on Ebay Believe it or not, I bought one at a second hand store for $6. It's great to whack balls anytime you want.

[Mr3Putt]

Much to my wife's dismay, our front yard is perfect for chipping. Nice short mowed bermuda grass. I put out 5 gallon buckets at 5,10,15 and 20 yards away and drop 20 balls or so and try to fly it into the buckets to get a good feel for my distances

That's about the best thing you can practice! I used to do the same thing with hula hoops. Now, me and the dog play chip and fetch. She kept tripping over the hoops, had to retire them.

[kfowler]

Couple things I do:

1.) I have your standard 8ft putting strip in my basement. It's good for practicing your pre-shot routine.

2.) I have a net in my garage. I find this ok to use but you have to be careful. Some shots that feel good may not fly good in reality.

3.) I have a large mirror in our bonus room to practice positions. I find this very helpful.

4.) Lately, I've been setting up my camera and computer and drawing a shaft line. I watch the monitor during my back swing to see if I'm staying on plane. I also use the foam balls inside.

[bogeyhitter25]

In-home golf simulator. Although the cheapest they go for is around $125 so it's going to be pushing it a little.

[squaddie]

Due to job-changes and a longer commute I can no longer hit the driving range after work.

So to allow myself to practice in the evening I have using a small hitting mat and a divotmat product. Here is the divotmat website to explain it better:

http://www.divotmat.com/beginner.htm

The divotmat system basically is a large sheet with images of golfballs that will smear when hit with a club. The sheet is mounted on a shock-absorbing plastic plate that can be further supported by a padded mat. You swing at the image of the ball on the mat and attempt to take a divot by striking the mat.

The smear you make on the sheet next to the golfball image helps determine if you are hitting the ball properly. If you take the divot correctly then the smear will start near the front of the golfball. The base divotmat package comes with 56 sheets ( 9 ball images per sheet), and refill packs of 56 cost $20. You can take probably 4 to 6 swings per ball image, averaging 45 strokes before one sheet is used up.

I like the mat because I can use indoors my apartment. I have to be careful not to strike the mat too hard (due to neighbors below) but most of the time I make decent contact with it. I've used about 4 sheets on the divotmat and was able to reduce my tendency for fat shots somewhat (due to extending my arms too much in the take-away).

The only problem with the divotmat is that you need to use a club with little bounce (like a blade), otherwise your divot will appear as a single thin line where the lowest point of the club makes contact.

I have game-improvement irons with bounce so I had to check the bottom of the club after impact to see exactly where my club face would have made contact. Since there is more weight on the bottom of my irons the divot-image is also longer than normal.

To compensate I bought two used blade-style irons ($10) that had very little bounce, which allowed for a better impact image.

I also use a separate hitting mat with a rubber tee to work on my swingplane issues, which creep up whenever I start shanking the ball. I setup my club with the rubber tee ahead of my clubface (outside the plane), and then swing down on the mat. If I hit the tee, instead of missing to the left of the tee, then my swing was too flat due to my right hip moving forward instead of turning my left hip back (bad movement I'm trying to correct)