How matts and carpets affect club?

[Dave325]

During inclement weather, I try to bring my practice game in the garage and hit off an old remnant piece of carpet. However, I just noticed that there were some fine scratches on bottom of my clubs. It is almost as if they were scraped. I am wondering if the carpet is causing this... Or is this just normal wear and tear?  Thoughts?

[Patch]

My guess is if the carpet is not cut, and you were not hitting floor, then it's just normal wear and tear. 

Those scratches you can see, will tell you quite a bit about what your club is doing at the bottom of your swing.

[natureboy]

Some of them are similar to synthetic dish cleaning pads and you're not supposed to clean burnished silverware with those. But if you take a divot off the grass, there's more coarse stuff in the ground than on even the roughest mats.

Most annoying thing to me with mats is the 'melt' of mat material I get on the bottom of my club that takes a bit of extra work to get off.

[Dave325]

52 minutes ago, Patch said:

My guess is if the carpet is not cut, and you were not hitting floor, then it's just normal wear and tear. 

Those scratches you can see, will tell you quite a bit about what your club is doing at the bottom of your swing.

Good point.... So, I took a quick pic of my 7-iron... which is probably the one I practice with the most.....

 

 

[Mr. Desmond]

Pictures are sometimes deceptive. Is that a normal grass polyurethane mat on which you are hitting? Does it have some padding?

Typically, an iron will show some scratching and you can get a lot of it out with an slight abrasive polisher. I like the pad to have padding in the event you are using any iron other than a stainless Ping (indestructible and almost unbendable ... lol) so as not to affect loft/lie. A little padding also softens the shock your body takes.

[colin007]

yeah, the only thing that ive heard thats of any consequence is that hitting off of them a lot can affect lie angles.

and oh yeah, i clean my irons with brillo pads.

[DaveP043]

If this is piece of old carpet, it wouldn't surprise me if you have some sand and other grit embedded in the nap, that could be causing some new scratching.  On the other hand, the only way I know of to keep a club scratchless is to put it away someplace and never use it.  

[SteveH]

I would say it's normal and unavoidable. Bottoms of my irons are all scratched and nicked from use after only about 3 months use. I play a lot and take a divot but clean my club after every shot. My clubs were all replaced last summer. My previous clubs were the same. I don't know how some people manage to keep their clubs looking so new, must be because they only play occasionally and don't take divots.

[Dave325]

11 hours ago, Mr. Desmond said:

Pictures are sometimes deceptive. Is that a normal grass polyurethane mat on which you are hitting? Does it have some padding?

Typically, an iron will show some scratching and you can get a lot of it out with an slight abrasive polisher. I like the pad to have padding in the event you are using any iron other than a stainless Ping (indestructible and almost unbendable ... lol) so as not to affect loft/lie. A little padding also softens the shock your body takes.

Yes, the carpet remnant I use was a left over piece from redoing my basement and I just throw it down on the garage floor with no padding... Pretty raw, I know.

This summer was the first time that I bought new clubs (previous clubs were always old/used stuff). So, I didn't know what expect on wear and tear... by the response, it seems like this should not be a really big concern, since I am using them every day. I appreciate everyone's input. Thanks!

[Mr. Desmond]

Or for $50...

 

 

[Dave325]

7 hours ago, Mr. Desmond said:

Or for $50...

 

 

Ah yes. Thanks! That looks like it might be a nice solution. The only problem I can see is that the matt would go flying when you hit the ball. It doesn't appear that you are standing on the matt you are hitting from. I assume there are some type of anchors. Hmmm.

[Mr. Desmond]

2 hours ago, Dave325 said:

Ah yes. Thanks! That looks like it might be a nice solution. The only problem I can see is that the matt would go flying when you hit the ball. It doesn't appear that you are standing on the matt you are hitting from. I assume there are some type of anchors. Hmmm.

Dave, that is an example. Found that at www.intheholegolf.com and they typically have sales around holidays and majors for 15% off. But you can find these mats elsewhere. You'd probably have to lay that mat down on carpet to create some friction so it moves around less.

[SteveH]

I bought myself one of those Fiberbuilt professional stance mats and it has 3 sections of replaceable turf that you can hit down into. It was expensive and it leaves the irons green but it cleans off.  It doesn't move. You can't just throw it down though, weighs 100lbs !!