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Originally Posted by kkingston57
Glenview grass is in great shape but only available several days a week. If I want to hit off grass I go to Baseline. On the bad side their grass is very thin. Took lessons recently and pro told me that the worst thing to do is practice off mats. Do admit that I do not hit a shank off of the mats. Another problem around TV golf courses is that the ranges are not very deep and there are a lot of ball pounders
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I suppose hitting off mats is better than not hitting at all. Or is it? The ball spins differently off mats and comes off club face at different speeds. Moreover, hitting off mats robs the golfer the experience of alignment; easy to align when you have the perimeter of the carpet running into 90 degree corners. Then there is the shank thing. Fair to say you are attacking the ball with a different intention off the mat than the grass. Clubface to turf contact, with low point control, is the name of the game. Driving range mats require attack angles different than the optimal angles experienced in elite play off of grass. It seems the worlds most friendly town isn’t really that friendly : ) I agree with your pro - in some ways mats are bad for our games.
I think the answer is to build some grass driving ranges outfitted with some real balls. Seems that was the original intention (at least the grass tees) until it became too difficult to keep the grass range from getting destroyed. Instead of building more ranges, or bigger ranges, it was more efficient to install mats. This is understandable. However, now that we are beginning to understand the shortfalls of mats, can we not begin a dialogue about the merits of more ranges and grass tees?