Range mats promote bad habits?

[steviesouthpaw]

I don't feel bad for you in San Diego man. You can still find an empty field at a public school on the weekends or something like that. Here in Massachusetts we truly have no choice in these horrid days of winter. I'd rather not hit off of mats but I'd rather the once a month off of mats than not swinging a club all winter. And if you play enough golf you know when you catch it clean or hit if fat. I don't care if you're hitting a rock off of a parking lot, you know the feeling of ground first or ball first.

[RobotDoctor]

I suppose hitting driver and 3 wood (if a real short rubber tee is available) is good for hitting off mats. However, I agree with whit53 that mats masks poor shots. I find that my shot making really is poor for several holes if I hit off mats. I just tend to do a stretching warmup instead of hitting from mats. All mats do for me is a stretching warmup while hitting a ball anyway.

[Quinn07]

I don't feel bad for you in San Diego man. You can still find an empty field at a public school on the weekends or something like that. Here in Massachusetts we truly have no choice in these horrid days of winter. I'd rather not hit off of mats but I'd rather the once a month off of mats than not swinging a club all winter. And if you play enough golf you know when you catch it clean or hit if fat. I don't care if you're hitting a rock off of a parking lot, you know the feeling of ground first or ball first.

I agree...the better player should be able to feel whether the shot he just hit was good or not. For the less advanced player it may not be the best, but the deep cold winters up here in Canada you have no choice but to take inside. Can't wait for the spring to arrive.

[rckwd]

Here in Nebraska the winters are long with a few days in the 50's. When that happens I head for the driving range to keep the muscle memory intact. I find that I rarely hit a bad shot off the mats, however, when I play a short par 3 course I hit shots fat and thin often. A few weeks ago an indoor golf room opened in Omaha and I have played a few rounds on the simulator and find the same, no fat or thin shots.

ABSOLUTELY!! In my opinion I wouldnt hit off one with my irons if I had a choice. They ruined my iron game. I used to hit off mine a lot but soon noticed it got me into a lot of bad habits (like taking too big of a divot; on the mat the iron would slide on the surface, but when you got on the grass your iron would dig) that was hard to overcome once I got back on the course. Now I only use my mat for hitting my driver and woods.

[lhshurdl3r]

For those of you who can't hit your irons on mats (steep swing perhaps...) what do you do to work your irons when you can't hit off of grass? The range I go to in the winter has mats, and I can't hit my irons to save my life since I can't actually get down and through the ball

[colin007]

theres nothing preventing you from "getting down and thru the ball" on a mat. if youre hitting the ball first then your swing will bottom out after the ball, and the mats give more than you think. you can feel it under your feet when you step on it.

[Bump-n-MI]

If you are looking the keep you muscle memory sharp during the off season mats are fine. They still provide enough feedback to let you know if you hit a solid shot. Personally I cannot stand them, however I will go to "the dome" once a week during the winter which helps me stay flexible.

[Zeph]

I don't like mats, but all the courses here have them on the DR, some even got them on the tees. I've suffered from this by developing a swing where I try to sweep or hit the ball up. Hitting down feels so weird on a mat, but the thing is to get the right feeling and be consistent. I have used some mats which give in a bit, the hard ones are horrible to hit from. On courses with mats on the tees I usually tee it up slightly. I haven't tried much to use a low rubber tee on the range. Nothin like turf, but anything than a plain flat mat is an improvement.

What do you think about hitting the ball from the edge of a mat with just air after the ball? Not very realistic, but you don't get that hard bounce off the mat like you normally would. You feel when you hit a divot, but with a soft course it's not much. I've seen many videos on Youtube f.i. where players use the same divot over and over on the range. Hit one shot, take a divot, then place the ball right behind the divot for the next shot.

Those of you who can play off turf all the time ar lucky, if we could gather up some tips for those of us who is stuck with mats it could maybe be of great help. Come on!

[Dpricenator]

I don't feel bad for you in San Diego man. You can still find an empty field at a public school on the weekends or something like that. Here in Massachusetts we truly have no choice in these horrid days of winter. I'd rather not hit off of mats but I'd rather the once a month off of mats than not swinging a club all winter. And if you play enough golf you know when you catch it clean or hit if fat. I don't care if you're hitting a rock off of a parking lot, you know the feeling of ground first or ball first.

I understand we have WAAAAAYYY better year round weather than many of you guys. However, to find an empty shool field is near immpossible, and even if you were to go hit practice balls, you would get in trouble pretty fast. The cops around here would be on that like white on rice. Destruction of property. I do feel for you guys and the weather situation you face. We play outside year round, but almost all public ranges use mats, with a very small grass section that cost twice as much. After reading what you guys are saying about the matts I may have to pay the extra $$$ for turf.

[denver_nuggs_15]

Unfortunately, the closest ranges to me all have mats. They give a little bit, but I take divots on the course. Also, the tees are so bad. I tee my drives fairly low, and the tees they have there are too high! They don't even have shorter ones that you can hit a 3W off of. The worst part: that green crap that gets on the bottom of your clubs...wtf!

[MI Rob]

Yeah I agree I hate using mats. But here in Michigan, theres no other choice besides just using the heated range with mats around here in the winter. I agree with denver nuggs, I hate the green stuff that gets on all my clubs after using mats.

[IcemanYVR]

Also, the tees are so bad. I tee my drives fairly low, and the tees they have there are too high! They don't even have shorter ones that you can hit a 3W off of. The worst part: that green crap that gets on the bottom of your clubs...wtf!

I probably shouldn't admit this online, but once, when I was using a range on a very regular basis, I marked one of the "tees", took it home, cut it, and it was perfect. I just brought it back and forth with me to the driving range.

[lhshurdl3r]

I probably shouldn't admit this online, but once, when I was using a range on a very regular basis, I marked one of the "tees", took it home, cut it, and it was perfect. I just brought it back and forth with me to the driving range.

*peter griffin voice* oh you bastard. lol

I just set up a net in my basement, except all i have to hit off of is the rug, which is covering concrete underneath. is there anything i can hit off of to make it seem as real as possible?

[Zeph]

I suggest you go to a local course and see if they got some old or used mats you can get for free. Once you get it home you put another mat underneath it and cut out a hole in the mat which will represent the divot. You can also jsut cut an edge in it. This way you'll hit the ball nicely and the club will travel through nothing but air on the follow through. I tried this on like 4 balls today. The local course had changed range ball machine and my card didn't work. With the cold weather they are rarely open too, so I had to make do with four balls I found laying around.

I found a reasonable good mat with 8 edges. When I put the ball on the upper left edge I can hit it without hitting the mat afterwards. It is concrete under, but I'm nowhere near that. Worked pretty well for me. Better than hitting of those range tees anyways. They are ok with driver or woods, but with irons I don't like them at all. With a 4 edged mat you'll have to stand with one foot off the mat, but if you get an old one you can just cut that up too. There is also an option to put whatever you want in that empty space which can resemble grass. A higher type of mat perhaps, like on simulators just to get the feeling that you hit through something.

[RichF]

Then...howcome....you don't see the pros on the grass driving ranges hitting great big divots?

Mats, if they have a bit of 'give' in them are perfectly fine and do not promote bad swings. I use mats 3-4x a week with evey iron in the bag and have no problem making the switch from 'sweeping/picking' to 'digging' when I play on the course at the weekends. Admittedly, at my range, the mat is split into two sections: darker green material of about 3/4" deep and a lighter, thinner one of about 1/8" - the latter I use solely for my 2, 3, and 4 irons.

I can however, see a mat of less depth and harder material causing problems.

[Zeph]

Good point on that last line RichF, there are many different mats and they are very different in quality. A really good soft mat is actually OK to hit from, but the hard ones that feel like rock are terrible.

About the pros on the range I have what I think is a reasonable answer.

First look at this video of Tiger @ the range:



You can see some dirt spraying when he hit. Most likely this is because he is placing the ball on the same spot over and over. The first shot took the divot and the next ones just hit some dirt or air. It also depends on what kind of club they are using. The longer irons doesn't take much of a divot.

The ground also give in a bit without having to take a huge divot. That's where a good mat is fine, you get enough resistance to pop the ball out, but it also give in enough for the club to follow through nicely.

[IcemanYVR]

You can see some dirt spraying when he hit. Most likely this is because he is placing the ball on the same spot over and over. The first shot took the divot and the next ones just hit some dirt or air. It also depends on what kind of club they are using. The longer irons doesn't take much of a divot.

I've practised at the range along side very high level players (Canadian Tour, Nationwide, and PGA Tour). They all take divots, probably right down to the 5 iron. They are very small divots, usually about 1 inch x 2 inches maximum. They are very shallow. They just keep placing the ball behind where they hit the last one. When they are finished, they will have a bare patch, depending on how many balls they hit, but for example 9" in diameter of bare smooth ground, just below the grass level.

[thedoxology]

hitting off mats does mask bad shots, but if you know that then it's not that much of a problem. you should know when you catch the ball clean and when you don't. one thing I do believe though is that it negates the feel of a bad shot more than grass would, particularly with fat shots. mats are fine to practice off of, you just have to know their limitations.

all should get off the range and practice their short game anyway.