Practice on mat vs. ground

[bpolunin]

Hi all,
I have heard many different variations and wanted to see what you all think.
What do you think about practicing on mat vs. on grass? Which one better? I would think practicing on grass is better since that is what you are playing on. But I also heard that practicing on mat is good since it is a little easier and to get your confidence up. But also, I have read that by practicing on mat, you can get tennis elbow or golf elbow (2 different things). Which makes me think twice before practicing on mat. It takes forever to recover from either one of those.
Also when I practice on mat, I get great distance. My 7 iron goes 170-180 yards, 3 iron 210 to 220 yards. When I hit the same club of the grass, it does not fly that much.
So what you all think?

[HoosierGolfer]

I'm lucky my home course driving range only offers grass as a option althought I have hit other places where they have mats. I would always rather hit off of natural grass when possible. We do have lie boards available and I have hit off of one of those a few times if working on a swing change but they will do some damage to clubs if you over do it.

[Greg]

Ive heard that mats can damage your clubs as well, they wont fly apart like grass will, you cant take a divot so If you hit a shot fat, your club takes the whole brunt of the impact and if i misshit an iron shot its usually a fat shot. Mats are great for golf stores hitting their demo irons and used drivers to try to get a feel for what you would like to buy but for practice grass is always best.

[NormH3]

Unless your golf course is made of mats, I think grass is always a better choice for practice. Unfortunately not all practice facilities have grassy areas for practice.

[danieldrieberg]

Practicing on grass is ALWAYS better. There are few absolutes in life but this is one.

Compromises must be made. Here in Wisconsin winter = mats. We have heated bays at one of the local driving ranges. The practice on the mat will help derust my swing but it aint the same. I also do not use my prize possession clubs as the mat will scar them.

2 years ago I was at the mentioned heated bay matted driving range (Madison, Wisconsin). The golfer next to me was hitting most excellent shots. Jerry Kelly-PGA tour pro.

He was warming up for the start of the spring tour in Hawaii. ----He had his STAFF Cleveland golf bag along. I've seen 55 gallon drums but the bag seemed bigger. His poor caddy!!!!!!!!

[limoric]

Not all mats are built equal and not all swings suit a particular mat setup. I think if you have a shallow swing, you will be better off than if you normally take a big divot, as I do. The old traditional mats at my old club gave me bursitis in my shoulder, so I bought 10 new units for them (strings attached ) that replicated a natural hitting surface. Shoulder got better in a few months and so did my game. Now I live in Vancouver area and do not have access to such quality mats. I went to the range last week and played off a mat that looked 10 years old. The hitting surface was not only hard, it was 1 inch above my feet. Half way through the bucket I was shanking one ball after the next. I can't remember the last time I shanked a ball on the course...but it happens from time to time at the range...

If I had the choice, it would be grass 100% of the time, unless I had a quality mat system to hit off of.

[Scott_K]

The range I go to has the mats from the pic above. This helps when I work with my irons since it has a decent amount of give.

[bpolunin]

limoric,
Oh wow, the mats you have the pic of are the mats my range has. I assume you are talking about hitting off of the part that looks like real grass? Not the harder part, correct?
Problem is, my range only allows to hit off of the real grass on the weekends. During the week it's all mats. Another range beside this one, is all grass. But the problem there is, every time I got there, every slot has sooooo many divots that it is not even grass but a bunch off holes.

[RocketSauce]

i will not hit off mats period. im lucky cuz all the ranges around here have grass. if they only had mats to hit off, i would not even practice.

[limoric]

limoric,

Yep, I miss those mats

. I just have to source out a range that has a similar system...

[SQ Bimmer]

In LA, we have mostly mat driving ranges. Very few public ranges allow hitting off the grass, and those that do, are usually really beat up. We just have too many golfers in such a dense area... Anyway, those mats above are the mats my normal range has as well. I like them because you can hit off of both surfaces. Hitting off the stance surface is good tight lie practice.

Tonight I went to a different range that had a mat that I have never seen before. It was new (although I'm sure the design has been around for a while) and at least 1" thick, probably a tad more than 1". The whole mat was the same material, no separate hitting and stance surfaces. It felt a little "squishy" to walk on, sort of like a fairway, and your feet felt planted on it sort of how they feel on the fairway. When you struck it with your club, it gave in, so you could feel like you were taking a divot. It was not as forgiving with fat shots compared to "normal" mats or even the mat pictured above. With a fat shot, it REALLY slowed the club down a lot, didn't allow the club to just slide into the ball like a normal mat, which would still produce a decent shot. On this mat, a fat shot went nowhere, just like on grass.

Honestly, it is the best mat I have ever hit off of. I plan to find out what kind of mat it is and I will report back.

[bpolunin]

In LA, we have mostly mat driving ranges. Very few public ranges allow hitting off the grass, and those that do, are usually really beat up. We just have too many golfers in such a dense area... Anyway, those mats above are the mats my normal range has as well. I like them because you can hit off of both surfaces. Hitting off the stance surface is good tight lie practice.

You might be talking about this mat Bimmer

Apparently it has a a real feel with divots and real tees. Here is what they say: "A Golf Mat that Lets You Swing ‘Down-and-Through’ with True Divot Action For Realistic Practice – And It Even Takes A Real Tee!" Looks pretty interesting. And you don't have to use those rubber tie things that I totally hate. Here is their site if anyone is interested. http://www.realfeelgolfmats.com/

[TD22057]

I have one of the realfeelgolfmats at home (I used it for awhile w/ a net). It's pretty nice and WAY better than any mat I've seen at the range. The closest range to me has crap for mats and I've been considering taking the mat w/ me even though it's pretty big. I'm sure I'd get a few weird looks...

[Stickbo]

I once had a pro tell me that if you hit slightly behind the ball it will cause it to jump up a little. At impact it could be as if you're hitting off a tee. Very deceiving to me. Grass all the way.

[safetrip]

I have one of the realfeelgolfmats at home (I used it for awhile w/ a net). It's pretty nice and WAY better than any mat I've seen at the range. The closest range to me has crap for mats and I've been considering taking the mat w/ me even though it's pretty big. I'm sure I'd get a few weird looks...

Who cares how it looks when you can have so much quality ball striking? I usually bring my own mat- small one to the range for the same reason. I've seen another guy doing the same thing.

[zenchili]

Who cares how it looks when you can have so much quality ball striking? I usually bring my own mat- small one to the range for the same reason. I've seen another guy doing the same thing.

Definitely. I have a Country Club Elite Mat and it really is excellent. Up here in the northeast it is cold. Even with the heated driving range bays I will not hit off their mats.

I have the 32x20 mat an can bring it to the range. I also a have a stance mat that I can bring as well so that my feet are level with the mat. It has an excellent feel. If you hit it fat you know it and if you hit it flush you know it as well. I reviewed these on my blog and recommend for both home use and the range. Plus, you can put a real tee in them. My range has these rubber tees that by twisting them one way they go down and twist them the opposite way they go up. Problem is they break easily and so they get very unstable. You finally get them the height you want and they won't hold the ball. They just flop over. No more. With the CCE mat I stick a tee in and it holds it just fine.

[jeffhale08]

When you can, obviously practice on real grass, but if you want to improve your ball striking, a good mat session can help with that. Because of the lack of a divot and thin lie, you will really make a marked improvement in your contact. The biggest problem when heading to the course, will be the lack of divots, possibly some thin shots at first. We use a mat here at my house, we have 10 acres of land and can hit up to 175 yard shots, if we did not use the mat, we would have no grass left. Mats are not all bad, but you can't beat the real deal.

[laxbballgolf]

I think hitting off mats messed up my swing. I've been going to ranges with mats out of convenience for a while now, and at the same time I've developed a bad habit of bottoming out my swing abruptly after contact, rather than continuing through the ball aggressively. My theory is that I made this compensation out of a conscious or subconscious effort to avoid repeatedly banging my club down so violently against the hard range mats. As a result, I've been cutting across the ball a little bit, and my misses have typically been weak fades. Just thought I'd post my experience as something for others to watch out for...