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Hitting off of Mats


Moppy
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I spent the whole winter in Florida playing very little golf, but I took a couple of lessons and hit off of mats almost every day. I noticed a huge improvement, at the range... But yesterday I got out on the course here in Vermont for the first time and what a mess! I was longer off the tee, after slicing the breakfast ball into the woods anyway (I was alone at the course :^) ) which was nice, but my irons were terrible, I was either topping everything, or hitting it fat.  I think it is sort of like hitting live pitching vs the pitching machine at the batting cage. 

I also feel like I can't even sweep the grass, it's like my first swing with an iron, when I was expecting my great flight I had been getting at the range, and I hit it really fat and it went 20 yards into some water, I got gun shy and started hitting everything thin.

Any suggestions for exercises I can do to get over being psyched out by the grass. The course is also pretty wet, so I have that to worry about.

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Mats can be deceiving, mask fat shots because your club bounces off the artificial turf into the ball and your shot comes off pretty good. What I would suggest is to practice at a grass range and remember the feels when you hit it fat so you can sense fat shots when practicing using a mat.

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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This will happen, happens for me too as I play indoor simulator leagues during the winter.  When we play on mats, we cant really tell if we are hitting the ground after the ball.  Sometimes we are probably hitting way behind the ball, but cannot tell because we are using mats.  I would go to the range (where you hit off real grass) and putt the ball down, then put a tee on each side of the back of the ball about and iron width plus a 1/2"-1" on each side.  Then you can tell whether you are hitting behind the ball or if your divot is coming after contact where it should be.  I have to do this for the first few range sessions to get my ball striking back to where it should be.  Damned mats and indoor facilities :mad:.

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My golf instructor warned about a different feel when hitting off of a mat.  What @nevets88 stated is the correct solution.    The cause...in my unprofessional opinion, your weight is not forward.   

From the land of perpetual cloudiness.   I'm Denny

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To add, since I use a camera, I can see if it's fat by slowing down the video near impact. That's a side benefit of videoing yourself. And once you're aware of this situation, your fat it on the mat radar gets better.

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Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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10 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Mats can be deceiving, mask fat shots because your club bounces off the artificial turf into the ball and your shot comes off pretty good.

 

You know, this seems obvious, but then I thought about it and I think I know the problem. When I do catch one exactly right off of the mat, I can feel it, and see it in the flight, but instead of thinking "There! I did that one right and I have to do that every time if I can," I would think "Wow, that was a great shot, wish I could do that every time, shrug..."

So much of golf is mental (Captain Obvious alert).  As it is, I am going to swear off of mats. If I can only find a range with mats, I will just hit off of tees, in the future.

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I don't have a problem with mats. A fat shot is obvious a thin shot is painfully obvious. I'd be looking at my swing. Also, on the course you rarely have a perfectly flat lie except maybe on the tee

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56 minutes ago, Moppy said:

 

You know, this seems obvious, but then I thought about it and I think I know the problem. When I do catch one exactly right off of the mat, I can feel it, and see it in the flight, but instead of thinking "There! I did that one right and I have to do that every time if I can," I would think "Wow, that was a great shot, wish I could do that every time, shrug..."

So much of golf is mental (Captain Obvious alert).  As it is, I am going to swear off of mats. If I can only find a range with mats, I will just hit off of tees, in the future.

The good shots are ones where you feel clean contact with the ball in the center of the face, but it can be somewhat deceptive on mats. Just like @nevets88 and @Grinde6mentioned, mats hide the fat and thin shots because they add a huge amount of bounce.

Your ball flights will be nice and high off of mats, then lackluster off of grass. Even a half inch of "fatness or thinness" will make a big difference in flight, and most of us are way more than 1/2" fat or thin.

 

19 minutes ago, chilepepper said:

I don't have a problem with mats. A fat shot is obvious a thin shot is painfully obvious. I'd be looking at my swing. Also, on the course you rarely have a perfectly flat lie except maybe on the tee

Unfortunately, it's not that obvious with a mat.

You can hit an inch and a half fat or thin on a mat and still get decent distances and off by an inch and still think the ball flight is okay. It's really hard to hit well on a mat because you can get really lazy.

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I am not a big fan of hitting off mats, only because there is not much  "give" to them. Mats are a worst case scenario fo me.

Mats are a good excuse for me to practice my short game more than my long game. The chipping, pitching areas at most courses use real turf to hit off of. 

Another issue is that most of the mats I see are sitting on concrete which can make poor contact even more, painfully worse. 

That said, I prefer to strike my full shots a little on the "thin" side, but even then, there has to be a little "give" after I contact the ball. 

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Trick was to use some form of indicator on the mats in the first place. A length of string or a piece of tape behind the ball would clearly show whether your hit was true or a "mat fat" hit. A thin hit is a thin hit on mats or grass. 

Another subtle thing is how forgiving are the mats that you stand on. I bet they are a LOT harder than the grass in Vermont where you might settle down a bit while taking your stance, as well as the ball sitting up a *bit* higher than the mat.

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Another way to tell if you're hitting fat on mats is you swing harder, ball goes same distance, mat absorbing the speed I guess?

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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I never really thought of the difference between a mat and grass. I always assumed since i was hitting the ball first that it didn't matter what i was hitting from. My elbow and wrist tends to be sore after a long range session on a hitting mat. I don't like the cushioned carpet type mats, though. My feet slip around on those. The range i go to has that kind of faux grass stuff. Its fluffy enough for the club to slide under the ball. 

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1 hour ago, RayG said:

I bet they are a LOT harder than the grass in Vermont where you might settle down a bit while taking your stance, as well as the ball sitting up a *bit* higher than the mat.

Good point, the ground was wet, and I am sure I was sinking in to it. Making a fat hit more likely. I think the thin hits were about fear of fat hits, since I don't hit it thin that much off the matts. 

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This is one of those topics, that seem never-ending. Similar to "Oil" threads on motorcycle forums. Anyway...

as one who has tried various configurations of mats, I have found the best arrangement is to use three 12 x 18 inch mats. One to hit off of, the other two to stand on. This gives one a lot of flexibility in terms of width of stance, closeness to ball. I have used the Real Feel Hitting Strips, as well as small pads cut off a 5 x 8 foot "Monster Mat". To be honest, the often touted "real feel" is not all that much better, but it is a little tighter weave. I used to use the larger single mat to both hit off and stand, but after awhile, I noticed that it would become a little worn in places making it hard to place the ball at the same spot each time without it rolling.  The three piece arrangement simply makes placement quick and easy. Once I find the ideal  set up for a variety of clubs, I nail them into place with six inch lawn nails. I can tell readily  whether or not I have hit thin or fat, so that is not a problem and I have also found that moving to a real grass driving range is not detrimental. For driver, I use a rubber insert that one can place a real "tee" in, or use the, "The Tee Claw".  That being said, I also realize that others have had different experiences.  

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14 hours ago, Lihu said:

The good shots are ones where you feel clean contact with the ball in the center of the face, but it can be somewhat deceptive on mats. Just like @nevets88 and @Grinde6mentioned, mats hide the fat and thin shots because they add a huge amount of bounce.

Your ball flights will be nice and high off of mats, then lackluster off of grass. Even a half inch of "fatness or thinness" will make a big difference in flight, and most of us are way more than 1/2" fat or thin.

 

Unfortunately, it's not that obvious with a mat.

You can hit an inch and a half fat or thin on a mat and still get decent distances and off by an inch and still think the ball flight is okay. It's really hard to hit well on a mat because you can get really lazy.

But if I hit that far behind the ball I can feel it and know.....that was fat

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11 hours ago, chilepepper said:

But if I hit that far behind the ball I can feel it and know.....that was fat

Most people are not that accurate, and 1 inch behind the ball on a mat doesn't usually feel like anything at all. The sound of the ball is not "perfect", but generally hitting that fat on a mat doesn't do too much to your distance.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It turns out I was still rocking back on my back swing, even though I thought I had it under control. Now I know what absolutely NOT rocking back feels like, I am hitting it fat a ton less, and have gained a little distance. 

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