Tips for practicing off of mats

I know there are various threads on hitting off of mats, but I wasn't able to grab a healthy tip for improving my long iron ball striking while reading them. With two young boys to raise at home, I simply don't have access to the cash to join a local club right now. I am currently paying for a range pass at a local public course, but they oversell the it and as a result, they rarely are opening the grass tees. I am hitting slightly behind the ball on the mats and just crushing it. You know the story: I move out to the course and catch these clubs just a touch fat. It wrecks all sorts of havoc. Can anyone provide me some solid tips on how to practice on these mats without destroying my swing? The mats are decent quality (not quite thick monster turf) and are on top of dirt/grass, as opposed to concrete.

For those that care to know my current plight:

I have worked hard over the last few years on my game. My big stick is very consistent and I can shape it both ways. My short game inside of 70 is superb at times and no shot intimidates me around the green. I love opening the face on wedge and I work hardest at that part of my game. My putting has gone through the roof with practice as well. I had my handicap down to 10.3 in the middle of last season but it has crept back up to 14. My scores are mostly determined by hitting the freaking 5 and 6 irons. It is my last puzzle to solve but I swear that these mats are holding me back. They are the difference between a 82 and a 90 for me. The trouble they can get me in is bad and it makes par 3's tough on me as well. On top of this (and possibly the root cause for my troubles) is that I placed the ball back of middle in my stance for years, to make hitting down on the ball easier. I have been trying to remove this crutch over the last couple of years which I'm sure adds to why I am struggling getting to the forward ball position with my angle of attack. I am starting to wonder if I should avoid hitting off the mats entirely.

It's not cheap - but there is a portable version of the Divot Action mat you can bring to the range with you. Better feedback than most of the cheap and hard driving range mats - and much better on the joints as well. I haven't used it myself - but the system in general gets good reviews (I've i'm pretty shallow to begin with and also learned a long time ago to judge when I get mat contact before ball - so havne't had as much of a need for an alternative).

https://www.customdesigngolf.com/divotactiontrade-mats.html

Another possibility - some foot powder spray or baby powder can help you see when impact is "fat". Make a mark off to the side where the ball is - and use that as a reference to the mark the club leaves.

Hit off mats for the joy of hitting a golf ball, but don't expect it to transfer to the course. All you're doing is practicing the one shot you'll never see on a real course -- a clean, level lie on carpet. If you don't have a 'sweep' style swing, you'll break your wrists. So, hit woods and long irons, maybe, but never hit short clubs.

I put a Strip of Duct Tape on the mat then strike a ball 1 club head in front of the duct tap, very quickly shows the fat shots

Not sure what you expect with hitting fat on the mats and expecting same results on the course. You can get away with murder on mats unless they are the old concrete with carpet mats.

> @apj0524 said:

> I put a Strip of Duct Tape on the mat then strike a ball 1 club head in front of the duct tap, very quickly shows the fat shots

^^^ This. I take cheap (99 cent store) foot spray and put down a line to check for fat strikes the 3 times I hit off mats in the last 20 years. I even do it at grass ranges.

Don't even hit on mats without some sort of fat hit gauge.

I use foot spray on the drive face sometimes. Good idea...

I just got back from the range. My wedges were a touch fat but that was easy to adjust. It just rained here so I could see the turf change colors on a strike. I am totally fat with my 5 iron. I could see how baby powder would work too as an indicator.

So, trying to get my weight forward and still hit down on the ball is tough for me with these long irons. I found that I can do it so much easier with a cut swing. Coming outside in a bit feels natural and I can hit it slightly on the way down, but coming from the inside or square is difficult for me. And that fade trajectory is not very piercing compared to a solid squared up hit. Onto looking up drills to solve this equation...

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Any more words are more than welcome!

Does "you're not alone" help? :(

A tip similar to the one using duct tape is to put a folded towel down a few inches behind the ball, also lets you know immediately if you hit fat. There really ARE no public grass ranges around here so I've had to hit off mats (either that or use my local 9-hole county course as my own private grass/dirt range during off-times). I've developed some sense of when I hit the ball cleanly and when I catch mat first (it's an aural sense) but of course that's not perfect. People think I'm crazy when I tell them I listen for the sound of the club on the ball as much as I look at the shot itself, but that's my deal.

I also cannot for the life of me get my body moving forward, I will tend to hang back and use my right side to drive the club into the ground just behind the ball. The only thing that seems to help is if I concentrate on using my left shoulder only on the downswing (I know, there's a huge, fundamental flaw in my swing) and try to keep my body closed a bit, letting my arms drag me around after they hit the ball. Sort of "Larry Rinker upper-core-esque". It's still erratic but the left shoulder feel definitely gets my body moving forward more.

Good Luck. At my age I'm going to have to learn to enjoy the journey, lucky this isn't my day job.

I hit off a mat in my garage over one winter. Almost every night. This was 20 years ago. It took me 3 weeks to learn to take divots

Never again. They can also be murder on your hands/wrists/elbows

Your likely picking it (leaving weight back) because your brain knows that trapping the ball will be detrimental on the joints

Work on your pivot

Read the above post - heed the advice.

Do anything you can to avoid mats, IMO - if my left elbow could talk . . . . . . .

The mats are on a raised bed of dirt and here in Ohio it has been fairly wet so I am not feeling much of an impact when I take a divot. Heck, I am practicing open faced lob shots on the wedge range with a mat and I see how far back I can hit behind the ball ON PURPOSE to see how I can use the bounce effectively. I haven't noticed any jolt from the impact, but maybe it is a cumulative thing. I paid this course for their range pass; they better get those grass tees rolling soon.

I could tell the type of strike by listening, but it does require some concentration. I really have to be vigilant in paying attention, but that stinks. I end up concentrating on that instead of what I WANT to work on.

The Yucatán masters practice area is mats.

I practice off a mat all the time. Mats tend to produce much more forgiving golf shots. Here's the best advice I can give you. Get yourself an old hand towel fold it in half and don't ever practice irons off the mat without it. Place it no more than 2 inches behind your ball requiring you to miss the towel and make ball first contact on your downswing. As you improve, move the towel closer to the ball. The small thickness of a one-half folded towel will not impede your backswing takeaway. You will be surprised at how your ball contact and distance will improve. This automatically forces you to move better to your left side in the downswing and clear your hips.

We have very few grass ranges up here in my neck of the woods. The ones we have are open just in the drier, summer weather. I spend the most of our winters hitting balls off mats and then spend the first half a dozen rounds of golf hitting fat shots. I have started tape/towel type mods to address this. It's not ideal, but the best I got.

I have an issue with getting too steep, so the towel visual is tough on me. They finally opened the grass tees but I did find a drill I liked especially with the long irons. I placed two alignment rods on the mat on my target line, about 1/4 inch apart. I placed the ball on top and hit. REALLY helped!

I am crushing everything now. I had my handicap down to 10.9 last year and I am confident I can break into single digits this year. I just have those long irons to clean up.

Towel is a must. The pocket towel (about 6x8) that comes with a regular Club Glove towel is great for this. Low profile/thin so it doesn't force any bad habits on backswing, and the surface of the towel really stays in place on a mat due to its texture. You can see on the towel where I've hit it before. If you hit the towel, it doesn't go flying down the range or anything, so you won't look like a dork.

> @carrera said:

> Towel is a must. The pocket towel (about 6x8) that comes with a regular Club Glove towel is great for this. Low profile/thin so it doesn't force any bad habits on backswing, and the surface of the towel really stays in place on a mat due to its texture. You can see on the towel where I've hit it before. If you hit the towel, it doesn't go flying down the range or anything, so you won't look like a dork.

>

yeah that towel looks perfect for it!

Can you really not feel when you hit one fat on a mat? It’s pretty damn obvious imo.

> @jut111 said:

> Can you really not feel when you hit one fat on a mat? It’s pretty **** obvious imo.

Maybe it is obvious for you, but not for everyone.

> @jut111 said:

> Can you really not feel when you hit one fat on a mat? It’s pretty **** obvious imo.

I've got better over the couple of weeks but since I wasn't obviously catching the ball clean much, it was difficult for me. Kind of like do you hear a tree fall in the woods if...

> @jut111 said:

> Can you really not feel when you hit one fat on a mat? It’s pretty **** obvious imo.

I was thinking the same thing. I know it every time I hit one a bit fat. I strive for the same contact I want off grass when hitting off mats. Never had an issue.

BT

I wouldn’t worry about it and get false theories in your head.

If you hit everything fat you would wanna stay on mats.

Our mats aren’t great. Pretty thin and I hit down 3 degrees with irons and dont get hurt. I can easily tell when I hit one fat. The flight,sound.distance,etc is all different.

Better than no practice at all

Best tip I have is to hit on the far side of the tee location. If you're hitting in the usual spot where everyone else hits from it's usually worn and softer which makes it much easier to fat one and not feel a damn thing. I like the hard mats because you can certainly feel when you don't hit it right. Hitting from a spot most others don't will help.

The towel idea sounds great, but even though I know that it's not going to damage the club and the towel isn't going to go flying down the range there is still a mental block that causes me to be tentative with my swings, which causes tension. I know it's 100% mental, but it's tough for me to get around.

In a properly struck iron shot, the club should "bottom out" about 3-4 inches in front of the ball. In fact, the ball should be in the air before the clubhead even touches the dirt.

That said, when forced to hit off of mats, I've had good success with finding a "short" rubber tee, placing the ball a couple inches behind it, then try to hit the ball and try to "slice through" the tee as close to the mat as possible. If I catch it fat, the club will have bounced up and I'll clip higher up on the tee or miss it altogether. You should feel more resistance from hitting the tee closer to the mat than clipping it up higher.

Another good drill is to actually tee the ball up and try to just barely clip the top of the rubber tee. A "fat" shot will "pop up" and/or feel like you hit the ball high on the face (you could use impact tape or foot spray on the clubface for visual feedback if you can't feel it). The advantage to this is that you aren't actually hitting off of the mat, so it can help protect your joints -- especially if you are dealing with elbow problems.

You'll see when you hit fat via good quality video (high speed, enough light, good lens) from face on or down the line. Instincts are probably right if you guessed you hit it fat - look at video to confirm, now you've associated feel with fat and that's a big part of figuring things out.

> @nevets88 said:

> You'll see when you hit fat via good quality video (high speed, enough light, good lens) from face on or down the line. Instincts are probably right if you guessed you hit it fat - look at video to confirm, now you've associated feel with fat and that's a big part of figuring things out.

Yup. Just having this discussion has helped.

> @evilelf said:

> I could tell the type of strike by listening, but it does require some concentration. I really have to be vigilant in paying attention, but that stinks. I end up concentrating on that instead of what I WANT to work on.

This is your answer. If you have to hit off mats, you need to use all of your senses to judge the quality of your strike. You go to the range to improve your swing for when you play right? Why ignore the once piece of data that will tell you whether or not you're making good contact?

> @Shades234 said:

> > @evilelf said:

> > I could tell the type of strike by listening, but it does require some concentration. I really have to be vigilant in paying attention, but that stinks. I end up concentrating on that instead of what I WANT to work on.

>

> This is your answer. If you have to hit off mats, you need to use all of your senses to judge the quality of your strike. You go to the range to improve your swing for when you play right? Why ignore the once piece of data that will tell you whether or not you're making good contact?

That was the point of this thread. The discussion served it purpose. Before this thread, I wasn't really sure how to tell to be honest.

On 5/24/2019 at 9:59 AM, cardoustie said:

I hit off a mat in my garage over one winter. Almost every night. This was 20 years ago. It took me 3 weeks to learn to take divots

Never again. They can also be murder on your hands/wrists/elbows

Your likely picking it (leaving weight back) because your brain knows that trapping the ball will be detrimental on the joints

Work on your pivot

1000%

Makes you worse, I take massive divots with almost all my irons and I can't hit off mats.  Wrist soreness and like you mentioned start thinning and do stupid crap on the course.  Never again.  

I find just taking slow back swings and working on tempo in the garage is actually wonderful for my game.  Something I noticed, when practicing a particular iron in the garage before a round.  Just slowing down the backswing and coming through with the feels I really do well with that particular iron the next day.   Kind of interesting.  

Normally I do it with a 7 iron.  Maybe 20 practice swings max, really deliberate and slow.  

When COVID happened and actually playing was nearly impossible in LA - I spent a ton of time hitting off mats at the range by my old house. 

It completely ruined me and took me a good year to fix things. All sorts of bad habits mats will hide creeped in and because I couldn't see them, they became ingrained. 

Mats are banned in my life. Fine for a warm up but never, ever again for practice.