COMMUNITY

Not much you can really do...I suppose you could grab a handful of grass from in front of the mat and pile it just in front of the ball, making sure you catch the ball and sweep off all the grass as well. But that would be annoying to do for every swing.

Mats are a drag, plain and simple. I'll hit off of them if I'm at the course warming up and that's all they have open, but I just try to stay away. They're not good for your wrists either, if you happen to catch one heavy there's no "give."

Grass ranges with decent turf can be tough to find. Have you tried looking for a soccer or ball field that isn't posted for no golf? Also can be hard to find, but I know a few in my area. I really don't know how to get really good feedback off the mat other than just by the feel of the ball as it comes off the club face. I can usually feel the extra drag when I hit too chunky and the little sting of a thin shot. You could also consider getting a net and setting aside a bit of yard for working on divots. Unless you live in an apartment, just thought of that... Depends a little on the mat too, when they get real worn it's hard to do anything. Nice fresh fluffy new mats are a lot easier to hit from. If I hear the thump of the club on the bottom of the rubber, I know I went too deep.

I agree with Tim on this one. There is no great solution to it and it doesn't help your swing one iota. The proper iron swing is to hit ball first and make your divot after, and the mat teaches you bad habits by picking the ball clean all the time.

I found 2 or 3 golf courses locally that I like a lot and they have great practice areas. I hate to say to "borrow" their practice area, but that's really sort of what I do. I don't play a round of golf there but they are higher end clubs with an easy way to drop off the clubs and just have them waiting for me back at the practice area. I hit balls for practice on the range and then I pick up the clubs and walk back to the car. Obviously, over the years I get to know some guys back there and throw them a few bucks, but you might want to try something like that.

I practice off of matts for the exact reason you posted Randall.

I would just warn my fellow matt practicers that if it doesn't feel PERFECT off a matt, that swing was not one you'd want to put on a ball on the course off grass. It's very easy to grove a swing off matts that doesn't emphasize ball first contact because the matts don't penalize it like grass does.

Thanks, all. Glad I posted that, because I think you've convinced me I need to do something different with my practicing- at least some portion of the time. Sounds like mats are worse than I'd even realized. Now I just need to find a good solution in the area (field, nicer club, etc).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..

Here you see me working to ingrain the principles from Jim McLean's instruction in a recent posting on Revolution Golf. I am trying to change the sequence of my downswing, ensuring that my left knee leads my arms and hands--and that my left elbow is in front of my stomach. I want to turn my hips around my strong left leg POST. Rehearsing this in slow motion and while hitting balls only a few yards is the best way to ingrain it.

http://www.revolutiongolf.com/..

The driving range where I take lessons alternates between mats and grass as they necessarily give the grass time to grow back in after divots have destroyed it.

If you have decent mats like this, with a softer area on each side, you can simulate grass with a chalk line. Just draw a line toward your target and cross it with a short line. Put your ball on that intersection. Then when you hit the ball with an iron or fairway metal, your clubhead should remove chalk AFTER the ball position but not before it, a clean strike and a correct divot. You can also hear when you strike it clean. And of course the ball flight trajectory and distance tells you whether you hit it well.

Not ideal, but it works.

Larry

There is no good solution to this, but a few thoughts to make the most of a bad situation.

1. Most mats fuzz up when you hit off them and you can use that to read your 'divots'. Works fairly well if you press down the area from time to time and move the ball around.

2. Almost no one LISTENS to the sound they make off the mats and you can tell a lot about your swing by doing so. I can't tell you the number of times I hear folks hit the mat then the ball and never adjust! Then they wonder why they are hitting it fat or blading it off of hardpan on the course. 'I never do that on the driving range', they say. Oh yes you do!

3. Look for ranges that have the mats with the longer blades on the outer striking areas.

Totally depends on the type of matts you use. Where I practice, they have the nicest matts ever. Long simulated grass matts. I never hit from real grass, only matts, and I am the best ball striker I know. You can tell if you hit the ball first when using matts. And there is nothing wrong with sweeping or picking a shot clean every now and then. Several pros sweep their iron shots.
I hit from the matts at my facility at least 3-4 tomes per week. About 150 balls each time. Never had a wrist or hand injury as a result. Never seen a difference in my shots on the course either.
One thing I can say for sure about some grass hitting aras at certain courses is this: Many are nothing like you will find on the course itself. They have been filled so often with sand that if you hit down on a wedge, it will not bounce, it will just dig in and you will chunk it. Not like on the course itself where the ground is usually more firm. Pembroke Lakes grass at their range is just like that. Not even close to being representative of the course itself. You will learn nothing from those hitting areas with your short irons.
Try both and see which one you are most comfortable with, then see if it really affects your game on the course, then decide.