Practice: grass or mats

A workmate of mine (serious golfer 5 h/cap) criticises me because i only use the indoor mats at the range. he is adamant that I should be outdoors on the grass. He swears by this and tells me that my h/cap wont fall unless I change from mats to grass. I dont particularly agree with him as I dont believe this theory. i am quite happy with my results. Anybody got any views on this argument?

hi robert
im afraid i have to agree with your mate!
thats unless you play on courses that are made of astroturf!!!
i always try and practise off the grass practise area because its like the real thing. mats are too forgiving when was the last time you hit a fat shot on a mat!
the club doesnt react the same on mats as grass and therefore you are not getting accurate swing feedback! no divots etc

yeh i am the same as slats im afraid the mats are still good but you will get much better swing feedback from grass. plus i find it easy to transfer what i learnt on the range to the corse if i was on grass but thats just a personal thing.

adz

You should try it off the grass as well. At least off matts you won't need to clean your clubs! Even so off the grass means GRASS and much of the time the teeing areas at the range can be pretty chewed up and the ground underneath very hard, which is not like a golf course either. The grass should offer a similar lie to a fairway or perhaps short rough. If your trying to hit off of hard-pan it's pretty tough. Also if you're using the tee's not hitting off the grass there's no difference between the grass or the matts -- except you don't need to supply your own tees.

Sorry Robert my old friend, but i'm afraid i have to agree with the rest. It's gotta be grass.

Count me in as a grass practicing golfer as well. Give me a good range with great grass any day. However, some grass ranges are so bad that mats would be better.

Also, people really need to learn on how to hit off grass when practicing. I practice taking a patch of grass out (as I create divots) instead of random divots everwhere. When I am done, there is a clear patch of dirt (shallow divots as well) that is usually 1 foot wide by 1 foot deep (give or take depending on how many balls I hit). I do not trash the range when I practice.

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Joe drinking Hacker