Is hitting off mats bad for your swing? Picture this: you’re at the driving range, taking swing after swing at golf balls off the mat. But have you ever wondered if this common practice could be impacting your golf game? Let’s find out!”.
Hitting balls off mats provides convenience and saves money compared to practicing on real grass. But the unnatural feeling under your feet and difference in the way shots fly and roll out can ingrain bad habits. Understanding those limitations is key to unlocking the benefits of mats while avoiding potential drawbacks to your golf swing and improvement.
What You Need to Know: How Mats Affect Your Golf Swing?
- Hitting off mats provides useful practice despite some drawbacks compared to grass
- Choking down irons helps avoid fat shots; consider teeing woods higher
- Ball flight differences are exaggerated at the range off mats
- Mixing in some practice from grass is ideal to complement mat repetitions
- With reasonable expectations and swing fundamentals, mats shouldn’t severely hurt games
While hitting balls at the range off mats all winter might not be quite the same as pure strikes from the fairway, it’s still incredibly valuable practice. Don’t let worries about ingraining bad habits deter you from putting in the work. Awareness of mat limitations paired with decent mechanics should mean only better golf as the weather warms up.
Should You Avoid Hitting Irons Off Mats?
One of the most common concerns is that hitting iron shots and chips off mats doesn’t properly replicate a shot from grass. Without the ability to take a real divot, golfers often struggle to compress the ball and make clean contact. Additionally, mats are notoriously difficult to hit soft “feel” shots on like pitching wedges.
But while those limitations exist, the benefits of being able to groove your swing repetitions likely outweigh any issues for most mid to high handicappers. Better quality mats with some give to them can mitigate some of the negatives as well. As long as you don’t solely rely on mat practice and occasionally work on your short game from real lies, hitting irons off a mat shouldn’t hurt your golf game.
Do Golf Mats Promote Fat Shots?
One of the most frustrating things about hitting off mats is the dreaded “fat” shot. With the club often bouncing off the firm surface before you hit the ball, golfers have a tendency to hit behind the ball and send ugly shots low and sometimes backwards. Not only are these fat shots ugly, but they can also lead to injury with the abrupt slowing of the club through impact.
To avoid fat shots, pay close attention to ball position and focus on swinging downward. For additional insights on improving your golf swing and achieving better ball contact, explore our guide on Common Golf Swing Problems
Should You Tee the Ball Higher on Mats?
With drivers and woods, golfers usually have the tendency to tee the ball too low when hitting off mats especially with the rubber tees provided . With the club sliding along the surface rather than digging into grass, it’s natural to make contact on the way up more often.
Teeing the ball higher with woods and hybrids can help replicate the downward strike you’d have off grass on the course. While awkward feeling at first during practice, it will pay dividends with better drives resulting from compressing shots when you play on grass.
Do Golf Balls Fly Differently Off Practice Mats?
It’s completely normal to feel some frustration at the driving range when you flush a shot but get results you weren’t expecting. Along with limiting the compressed flight, shots off mats can launch higher with more spin than ones cleanly struck from grass.
The good news is that while annoying when trying to work on your distance control at the range, those differences diminish greatly when you return to the course. Pay more attention to the way the shot felt and the swing itself rather than the exact ball flight at the range off a mat.
Can You Develop Bad Swing Problems from Mats?
Along with fat shots, some other swing issues golfers blame on mats are pulls from an overly in-to-out path and wrist injuries. Firm mats make it challenging not to fade the ball for those with more of an outside-in move through impact. Golfers with wrist injuries also frequently blame the jolting blows off unforgiving surfaces.
As with any high-repetition practice, fatigue is likely the main culprit for developing bad habits rather than the mats themselves. Keeping range sessions focused by alternating clubs and swing feels is important. And taking regular breaks while staying hydrated can help avoid overuse injuries to vulnerable areas like the wrist.
Should You Do Some Practice Off Real Grass?
While quality driving range mats have come a long way to mimic hitting off grass, even the best turf provides an unnatural experience. With that in mind, it’s always advisable to incorporate some practice from time to time off natural grass when possible.
Whether at a country club, local park, or just your backyard, perfecting your swing off real lies provides invaluable experience. Even occasional practice chipping, pitching, and hitting full shots from grass is beneficial to keep your technique sharp. Just avoid overdoing it and damaging areas not meant to take that much usage.
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Hitting Off Golf Mats
In the end, it comes down to a golfer optimizing their own practice plan to balance convenience and quality. While grass provides the most realistic experience, golf mats offer stability and opportunity for grooving swing technique that should not be discounted.
Pros:
- Convenience – Golf mats allow you to practice at home or hit balls at an indoor simulator or driving range year-round. Don’t have to rely on good weather or course access.
- Cost – Hitting off mats is usually cheaper than playing on actual grass, especially at a driving range. Saves money over time.
- Consistency – Mats provide an evenly flat, stable surface to place balls and hit from. Natural grass has uneven lies that change results.
- Feedback – Mats allow you to see clearly if you are hitting fat shots or have poor contact. Impacts show on the mat.
- Durability – Golf mats hold up well over time to repeated swings and shots without getting torn up like grass does.
Cons:
- Unrealistic feel – Mats don’t replicate the exact feel of taking divots out of real grass and soil. Can promote fat shots.
- Exaggerated flight – Shots tend to launch higher and spin more off mats compared to shots flushed from grass on a course.
- Wrist stress – Repeated impact on firm mats can jar the wrists and possibly lead to injury over time with poor technique.
- Restrict spin/sweep – It’s difficult to execute greenside shots that require clean sweep contact and maximum spin off mats.
- False ball position – Woods/hybrids should be teed higher on mats; failing to do so promotes topping the ball.
Golfers would be smart not to rely solely on mats and mix in some practice from natural lies from time to time. Enough quality reps from grass will help mitigate any major issues mats could potentially cause. Above all, proper fundamentals which emphasize correct ball strikes will negate most of the drawbacks of golf mats.
Conclusion
Hitting shots off mats provides useful feedback, convenience, and swing grooving despite lacking the pure feel of flush strikes off grass. There’s no denying most average golfers will log more practice hours from artificial turf than pristine fairways. Optimizing that mat time while understanding its limitations is key to balance maximum benefit and minimum potential for ingraining poor habits.
While fat shots and wrist discomfort present common mat struggles, proper setup adjustments help mitigate their influence. Monitoring ball position, brushing the surface before shots, and swinging slightly downward all promote solid ball-striking. Take care not to overswing in search of compressed flight or distance, maintaining control should remain the priority.
Perhaps the most frustrating by product of mats is distorted distance gauging, as shots often fly higher and longer compared to the same flush strikes from grass. But remembering the majority of practice occurs on the same mat helps correctly assess swing and strike quality regardless of result. Learning to control all shot shapes and trajectories eventually breeds adaptation to varied surfaces.
Mixed practice that alternates between grass and mats combines useful stability with true round feel. Chipping and pitching from actual lies around the practice green before driving range time enhances realism. Golfers focused purely on technique and improvement will extract quality from both settings through heightened awareness and reasonable expectations.
In the end, proper fundamentals and athletic motion govern success far more than practice surface advantages. Smooth acceleration, efficient motion, and consistent contact should thrive from any lie. Blaming tools like mats for poor shots oversimplifies development. Integrate them positively into practice plans knowing their strengths and weaknesses.
We love hearing from fellow golf enthusiasts! Share your mat or grass practice stories and any tips you have for improving your swing.