Should you hit off a mat or hit off grass? I imagine you’re curious because your range game isn’t carrying over to the course and you suspect it might be because you’re hitting off a mat. Or you can’t hit a golf ball off the grass to save your life. Or maybe you just want to know if mats are bad for your game so that you can optimize your practice.
Hitting off mats are better than nothing, but there are several reasons to avoid hitting off them and instead practice hitting balls on grass if you can.
Mats are Nothing Like Playing on the Golf Course
The biggest issue with hitting off a mat is that it’s nothing like playing golf. When is the last time you had a perfectly flat, fluffy lie with no slope? You know as well as I do that’s rare, even in tee boxes — at least for muni courses.
Not only do you have a perfect lie hitting off a golf mat, but the mat hides your swing flaws. For example, on many mats, if you hit a shot fat, often what will happen is that your club will bounce off the mat and make decent contact with the ball. Unless you’re hyper aware or experienced, you’ll have no idea. You’ll think you hit a good shot.
There are some mats that don’t let you get away with this as much. I have a couple small Country Club Elite mats from Real Feel Golf Mats. If you hit it fat, your club will dig into the mat and it’ll feel a little more like a fat shot on the course. They’re still not as good as hitting off the grass, though.
Thin shots can be tough to spot too, unless it’s obvious, such as a real low flight shot or grounder. Or if you top it all together. But on the course you’d know you hit it thin or likely hit it thin if you didn’t take a divot. But you can’t take divots out of a mat.
There are ways around all this. For example, you can set up drills like the towel behind the ball drill. Or you can spray your club face foot odor powder. This will give you some indication of your ball striking. It’s still not as good as hitting off grass, though.
Other Reasons Not to Practice On Golf Mats
- Mats can wear your clubs out faster than grass. I’ve not experienced this, so I don’t know how long that might take or the type of damage they inflict on your clubs. It’s something I’ve seen other golfers complain about.
- Mats can be tougher on your body. Many of the range mats I’ve hit off have virtually no give. Some of the higher quality mats, like those from Real Feel, might have a little more give. Still, mats sit atop of concrete. I’ve seen golfers complain about sore or injured wrists and forearms. This is likely to be a bigger risk the steeper your swing plane.
- Mats can skew flight data. While not conclusive, I heard that TXG Tour Experience ran some tests on Trackman to see how hitting off mats can alter ball flight. They reported seeing shots go higher and have less spin on the range. Put another way, balls can go further when struck off a mat. This is something to be aware of and discuss with your fitter if you ever go in for a club fitting.
Grass Ranges Aren’t Perfect Either
I prefer to hit off grass whenever possible, but it’s important to realize that many grass ranges aren’t perfect either.
For example, the grass ranges I have had access too are flat with no slopes. There are no trees or fairway bunkers to hit from either. You’re hitting off perfectly manicured grass.
This means you need to think about how you practice. If you’re constantly raking balls and hitting off perfect, fluffy lies, then you need to make sure you’re deliberate about how you practice. You need to take time between shots, play games to add pressure, and move at a variety of speeds. That’s the only way to ensure your range practice transfers to the golf course.
How to Practice Effectively Using Golf Mats
Many golfers complain about their range practice not transferring to the golf course. I’ve experienced this too. I’ve also seen complaints from golfers who say that they can hit off mats but are unable to hit off grass.
This is likely due to swing flaws that is harder to spot when hitting off mats. However, if you know how to practice effectively using golf mats, then you’ll retain the changes you want to make, carry those changes to the golf course, and hit the ball straighter and further than before. And shoot lower scores.
What do you need to practice well using a golf mat?
Feedback
Feedback in your practice is important regardless of whether you hit off a mat or grass. I’d argue that it’s more important to setup feedback when you’re hitting from a mat since it’s easy to overlook your swing flaws.
What type of feedback should you setup?
- Towel – One drill is to have a towel behind your ball. If you hit the towel you know you’re hitting the ball fat. If you miss the towel, hit the ball, but don’t feel like you hit the mat, then you know you likely hit the ball thin.
- Spray Your Club Face – Use some foot odor powder spray on your club face and hit a few balls. This will give you an idea of whether you’re hitting it fat, thin, or on the toe or heel.
- Alignment Sticks – You can set up alignment sticks to use as avoidance drills i.e. to know if you’re coming over the top in the golf swing and to avoid doing so. You’d often see a divot pointing to the left if you hit off grass, but not so when hitting off a mat. The alignment stick would give you feedback.
There are many ways to get feedback. You just need something to let you know how you’re striking the ball since you won’t have the feedback you’d otherwise get hitting off turf.
Proper Practice Routine
This is true regardless of whether you’re hitting off mats or grass. If you want to retain what you’re working on, actually improve your skills, and see those skills carry over to the golf course, you need to do the following.
- Go to the range with a plan. What are you going to work on? Treat it like a gym routine and note how many sets and reps you’re going to do.
- You need variability. You CANNOT bang 80 balls with a 7i and then another 50 with driver and expect to see much improvement. You need to mix up your club selection and targets.
- You need time between shots. You need a minute between balls to think about your last shot, how it went, if it was the type of shot you wanted, and what to do differently next time.
- You need challenge. The drills you do or games you play need to be challenging enough that you’re not succeeding 100% of the time. You also don’t want a super high failure rate. There’s a sweet spot there that you want to fall in, around 70%. This will help to maximize your learning and retention.
I learned a bit about this from Adam Young (author of The Practice Manual), Iain Highfield (author of Golf Practice: How to Practice Golf and Take Your Range Game to the Course), and Cordie Walker (operator of Golf Science Lab). All of them are focused on practicing in an efficient way so that your practice actually means something and improves your game — regardless of whether you have hit off grass or mats.
Conclusion: Mats Are Okay, Grass is Better for Golf Practice
While grass is better for golf practice since it’s closer to the real thing, you can get better at golf hitting off mats. You need to make sure you have a good practice routine, know how to effectively practice at the driving range, and have feedback. You need to know whether you’re striking the ball well and are practicing in such a way that the skills you’re developing will transition to the course.
If you find that for some reason you’re able to hit balls off a mat but struggle to hit a ball off the grass, I’d refer to the points I made above. My best guess is that the mat is hiding a swing flaw that’s enabling you to “cheat” at the range and setting you up for failure on the course.
Also, to be 100% clear, practicing off grass doesn’t guarantee that your practice will transition to the course, that you’ll hit the ball straighter or further, or that you’ll drop your scores. If you’re not practicing well, working on the right things, or challenging yourself, it won’t matter what you’re hitting balls off of.
But if you are practicing effectively, then practicing on grass will be the best for mirroring what you’ll experience on the golf course. It doesn’t hurt that you’ll extend the life of your clubs and minimize injuries too.