Taking time to practice your golf is very important and without practice, you will struggle to improve. Much of your practice is likely to take place at a local driving range and this is a great place to work on your swing with various clubs.
However, there are a few things you must be aware of when playing shots at the practice range. This first of these is the mats
The practice mats at a driving range are often not made from grass. You are lucky if you get to practice at a grass range as taking a divot is an important element of a golf shot using the irons. However, many practice ranges do not have grass and you will be hitting off a synthetic mat.
When playing off a mat, it encourages you to take the ball off the surface of the mat without the head of the club hitting the mat. When on the golf course, this type of ‘scoop’ or ‘clip’ shot is not what you want to be playing.
To avoid this from happening, the club should always be brushing the bristles of the practice mat after contacting the ball. Do not be afraid for the club to make contact with the top of the mat having hit the ball.
Clearly you do not want to be hitting the mat hard with the head of the club as this will lead to a poor shot and could damage the club. However, you must avoid scooping the ball off the mat because this will get you into bad habits on the golf course. The club should be bottoming out after making a good strike and brushing the AstroTurf after the ball.
If you strike a fat shot on the practice range mat, the club will bounce off the mat but still make a reasonable strike of the ball. The same shot will not have the same result on the fairway and if you hit too far in-front of the ball, you will be lucky to see it travel more than 10 yards.
Feel for when the club head bounces off the mat before hitting the ball. You can also hear the thud of the club on the mat when the head strikes it too early before the ball. When this happens, consider it a bad shot, regardless of how far the ball travels at the practice range.
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