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Hitting off mat

long&straight

long&straight

Blind Shot
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Unfortunately with all the rain these days I am limited to going to the range each day and hitting off mats. I usually hit anywhere from 100-200 balls per range session.

Couple of questions:

Will hitting irons off the mat hurt my golf swing since i am use to taking a divot off the grass?

To go along with that should I do anything different when hitting off the mat then I do when I hit off the grass?
 
all I know is that I seem to hit WAY better off of the mat than the course...thats why I jive the guy that they are "game improvement mats"
 
you may have issues with the club bouncing off the turf a bit compared to the club going through the grass like it does resulting in some fatted/thinned shots
 
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Living in the heart of Chicago, I am forced to hitting off of mats at the range quite frequently. While I don't think that it will necessarily hurt your swing, it may lead to a few fat shots initally when you actually go to the course (particularly if the mats were wet). If you are a few centimeters fat on a slick mat, it could be difficult to notice. This could translate to the course, but is an easy fix on the course.

If those mats are on cement, however, your lie angles may change if you play on the mats a significant amount.
 
I can't hit wedges off mats, pretty good with most other clubs, and I agree about the divot issue and the fact it will take some adjusting once you move back onto grass to actually play especially with short irons. Most of the time with mats I only hit off a tee or the rubber stub.
 
mikedean441 said:
all I know is that I seem to hit WAY better off of the mat than the course...thats why I jive the guy that they are "game improvement mats"
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because no matter what your club is just sliding into the ball,mats really mask bad shots
 
I've had what I believe, is a fairly bad experience with the mats at my club. I practice frequently, and the mats are used for half of the week.

The result of practicing often on mats? My irons started to bend where the head and shaft come together. I've replaced my entire set of iron shafts twice (both sets replaced were KBS). Since then, my instructor, the pro at Golf Galaxy, and one of the pros who works at my golf club have told me to stop hitting off the mats with irons.

Just a heads up!
 
Some mats are better than others. I went to a different driving range than my norm on friday and am glad I wasn't using my clubs. They were that bad, worn down to the backing and nowhere to stand if you put the ball in the center. It felt like I was practicing shots from the cart path, as if....Personally though I feel any time with a club in hand is good practice, may not be ideal but I'll take what I can get. We are going on about 24 weeks of rain but I stuffed 4 rounds in 7 days last week yea...
 
I don't like hitting off mats. When the grass part of the range isn't open, I will practice putting and chipping instead.
 
Smallville said:
I don't like hitting off mats. When the grass part of the range isn't open, I will practice putting and chipping instead.
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+2. No mats on the course, so I'm not about to practice off one. Club to turf interaction is part of what I work on if I do hit at the range. I want to see the divot on each shot.
 
HoosierGolfer said:
+2. No mats on the course, so I'm not about to practice off one. Club to turf interaction is part of what I work on if I do hit at the range. I want to see the divot on each shot.
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We had a par three course in town once that had the mats on the tee boxes. You had to hit your shot off the mat. Whenever we played we did that, but just chipped it off the mat to the grass. We just took one shot off each hole! They wound up moving about 10 miles away and built regular tee boxes and made it into an executive course instead of a par three course.
 
Smallville said:
We had a par three course in town once that had the mats on the tee boxes. You had to hit your shot off the mat. Whenever we played we did that, but just chipped it off the mat to the grass. We just took one shot off each hole! They wound up moving about 10 miles away and built regular tee boxes and made it into an executive course instead of a par three course.
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I like that, I love when people make things work in spite of other peoples stupidity. Good job Smallie.
 
I hate hitting off of mats. Tough on the elbows, tough on the clubs, tough tough tough. In the winter I am relegated to going to a range with heated bays and of course, mats. I take a set of really good mats, the CCE mats and I put them over the mats that are there so in effect I am hitting off of a double thickness of mats the top layer of which is simply the best mat you can buy. That is the only way I will do it and even then I use my practice set of irons. While I am fortunate enough to have a practice set, I would really recommend that you carry your own set of mats to any range where you are going to be forced to hit from mats and double up the thickness.

Whenever possible, go to ranges that offer turf bays.

If there is one thing that makes this a little easier to deal with it is the cost of mats that you can carry easily to a range. The small CCE mat plus a stand mat ( I bring both to a range with me) will cost you about $200.00 all in as I recall. It is well worth it to save the wear on your body and your clubs. The are indestructible as well so they will last.
 
Try and find the mats that simulate grass. There are the ones with bristles, if you hit fat, you know it. The other type, named JR or something like that are similar, but meh, not that great, they don't mask fat shots as much, but I don't think they come close to mimicking grass but they are better than your typical mat.

If not, you can get a rubber tee and cut it so that it just sticks out above the mat that way you know if you hit the ball first. You can put a towel a couple of inches behind the ball, if you hit the towel, you fatted it. Check the bottom of your club, if you hit it correctly there should be no green stuff, the green stuff should be near the leading edge of the club. Lots of green stuff on the bottom of your club you are fatting it. Also learn to listen for the thump and click - fat. It should be click and thump. Or thwack and thump.
 
Years ago I used to get that large bucket of balls at the range. No more. I've realized, for me at least, that when I have too many balls to hit through I tend to not focus on my technique. My shots are worse at the range than on the course. I've started to get only the 50 ball bucket and take my time. My shots are better even hitting irons off the turf (which I hate). I've also noticed if I over do the range my swing gets worse. That's just me.
 
I actually don't mind mats as long as they're good ones.

Most of the mats I find these days are very thick and very plush and have quite a bit of "give" to them and I have no issues with "hitting down" into them. In fact, I sometimes actually PREFER mats because of their consistency. If I'm working on alignment or something else that is more about setup than actual ballstriking, I find it easier to do this with mats because I'm not wasting time trying to find a good spot to place the ball that isn't uneven, bare or has some other inconsistency. With mats, I can set up an alignment club and place the ball in the same spot over and over and I find that this allows me to concentrate more on what I'm trying to do instead of fussing with the lie.
 
guys i am in a panic. my club is mats only on weekdays. on my lunch hour i went to the club and hit balls. i was flushing the ball and was really excited. i went to play 9 holes after work and could not hit a iron. i was hitting it fat, thin and everything in between. anybody else experienced this and how did u get your game back? this has repeated 3 times now
 
Outlander...mats can make you look like a hero. Fat shots aren't penalized unless your hitting off the grass type mats. If its the tight lies version then the feed back can be a little skewed. All I can is try very hard to catch ball first then mat. Try to make descending contact.
 
dtak84 said:
I've had what I believe, is a fairly bad experience with the mats at my club. I practice frequently, and the mats are used for half of the week.

The result of practicing often on mats? My irons started to bend where the head and shaft come together. I've replaced my entire set of iron shafts twice (both sets replaced were KBS). Since then, my instructor, the pro at Golf Galaxy, and one of the pros who works at my golf club have told me to stop hitting off the mats with irons.

Just a heads up!
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I agree with this one. I have also been told that hitting off of a mat COULD lead to the lofts being off a degree or two. Not sure how much truth there is to this statement. I usually don't go to the range all that much, summer or winter. My club doesn't have a range and I have become accustom to playing without hitting balls. Like I said, I don't know how much truth there is to my above statement or how many balls you would have to hit in order to change the lofts but it's just something I've heard
 
I have, in the past had bad experiences hitting off of mats, but lately I have been hitting ok from them. I will always prefer natural turf for sure through.
 
Its true, especially with carbon steel irons that if you hit off of mats a lot that you should get them checked at least once a year because the lofts and lies can and will change over time.
Honestly, you should be getting them checked on a regular basis regardless but that goes double if you hit off of mats a lot.\
In regards to hitting off of mats masking bad shots, I cant comment on that. The only thing Ive ever noticed with mats is that I tend to hit more topped shots but Ive never noticed a night and day difference between hitting off of mats and hitting off of grass. The range that I go to uses those fake grass mats though that arent the bare lie of some of the other mats Ive hit off of though, so that could make a big difference.
 
we have the nice mats at my club that are not hardpan. i think it has become a mental issue for me:bulgy-eyes:
 
Outlander said:
guys i am in a panic. my club is mats only on weekdays. on my lunch hour i went to the club and hit balls. i was flushing the ball and was really excited. i went to play 9 holes after work and could not hit a iron. i was hitting it fat, thin and everything in between. anybody else experienced this and how did u get your game back? this has repeated 3 times now
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I'm in the same situation. I've noticed if I hit off mat too often, I can't translate it to the course so I try to mix it up as much as I can (grass every other week or so). I've noticed that's helped me A LOT.
 
I DO NOT hit off mats. Not even on a tee for the driver. I don't play on a mat golf course. LOL. And I don't want to damage my clubs.

Someone mentioned taking their time at the range.... I do the same. A fifty ball bucket last me a LONG time. I may not even finish the bucket. The range is for practice and I take lots of practice swings before hitting the ball.

But I play fast on the course.
 
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