I’m sure just about every golfer has hit golf balls from a mat at some time in their lives. And a lot of golfers are not real fond of hitting off a mat. Some so-called experts even claim that hitting off a mat is one of the worst things you can do for your game. Some golfers even claim that hitting balls off a mat is bad for your hands and arms, especially if you are prone to arthritis or tendonitis. While some of this may or may not be true, hitting off a mat is a fact of life for most golfers at one time or another, I know a lot of courses that close the grass section of their practice area in the winter and you have no choice but to hit off mats. The main reason for this is the fact that they can’t re-grow the grass in the winter, and that leaves the golfer to hit off a mat. If you use an indoor practice area, I’m sure you’re quite familiar with hitting off a mat.
The good news is that there is an alternative to hitting off one of those hard rubber mats now. The True Strike Mat replaces that old hard mat with a new softer mat that acts much more like real grass. Most of the mats at your driving range are one-inch thick hard rubber with indoor-outdoor carpet on top. They look nice, they feel okay under your feet, but they don’t really react the same way as grass does when you hit a ball off of them. If all you do is hit balls off a tee on these mats, then fine, they work perfectly well. But if you want to hit your irons or fairway wood off the deck, they leave a lot to be desired. This is where the True Strike Mat comes in.
The True Strike Mat is made in two parts, three really. The main section of the mat, the part you stand on, is made of a hard plastic material, and it’s in two halves. The second section of the mat, the part used to hit off of, is totally different. The top of this section is made to move downward when you strike the ball. This is pretty much what happens when you hit a ball off grass. Off grass, the clubhead can go down below the surface of the grass, and you take a divot with your irons. With the True Strike Mat, the upper surface is flexible, and under the surface, is a layer of gel. This gel is firm enough that the ball sits up well, but soft enough that it moves out of the way when the sole of your club contacts it. This allows the bottom of your club to continue it’s downward movement, and the result is a pretty good copy of what happens when you are hitting off of grass. The only real difference is you don’t have to replace the divot. After the top surface flexes downward, it returns to its original position, ready for the next shot. As you can imagine, if you hit balls long enough off this section of the mat, it will start to wear. This has been taken into account, and the gel filled hitting section of the mat is replaceable. It’s made to come out and be replaced when needed. But don’t worry, it will be a long time before you wear it out.
The benefits of this mat are quite easy to understand. First off, if you do have a problem with arthritis or joint pain, the gel layer will minimize any shock at impact. When you hit off a hard rubber mat, the mat can’t move, so the force of impact can send shock waves up your hands and arms. With the True Strike Mat, this doesn’t happen. The second benefit, the one most golfers will appreciate, is how hitting off this mat will duplicate the action you get when hitting off grass. Let me explain. When you hit off grass, if you hit behind the ball, the club head will dig in, and you don’t make decent contact with the ball. With a standard rubber mat, the club head doesn’t dig in, it just slides along the top surface, and runs into the ball, giving you pretty good contact. While this means you hit the ball pretty well, it doesn’t translate over to the course. A perfect example of this is what happened to me when I first learned to play golf. After a few lessons with my instructor, I went to the range and hit buckets of range balls, until I was hitting them pretty well with my irons. I felt pretty confident about my ball striking. But I was in for a rude shock when I took my new game to the course. Out on the course, there was no hard rubber mat to save me when I hit behind the ball. All those times the clubhead slid into the ball, all those decent shots, they all disappeared. For some unknown reason, I was hitting a lot of shots fat, shots I never hit off a mat. My decent golf game was gone. The result was, I had to learn how to hit my irons all over again, without the aid of the mat. This wasn’t much fun, and really pushed my game back a few months. What really made things bad for me was that after I learned to hit balls off a mat at the range, I started playing only a par three course. I did this so I would learn how to play the par 3 holes well, before taking my game to the full size courses. This was working out pretty well I thought. As you know, on a par 3, you tee up the ball at every tee box, so my ball contact was great. But when I went out to the full size course, I now had to hit my second and third shots from off the deck. And it just wasn’t the same as hitting balls off that rubber mat I was practicing on. I was in deep trouble.
Now that I’ve had time to work with the True Strike mat for awhile, I’ve been able to feel and see the difference this mat makes with my ball striking. If I hit behind the ball with this mat, the club head doesn’t just slide into the ball as it does with a hard mat. And this forces me to hit better shots. Now when I go out on the course, my practice time translates directly to the course. I no longer have to worry if my ball striking in practice will still be there when I play a round of golf. Because the True Strike Mat duplicates hitting off grass, whatever game I have hitting off the mat, will be the same game I take to the course. Think of hitting a ball off a hard rubber mat as riding a bike with training wheels. Sure, it’s an easy way to learn to ride a bike, but you never really know if you can ride okay on your own, until you take them off. Training wheels let you get away with poor riding skills, skills you need without the safety net of those little wheels. It’s pretty much the same story with hard rubber mats. They let you get away with poor skills. Skills you’ll need when you play on real grass. And those are the skills you will learn if you hit off a True Strike Mat. Those are the same skills you’ll need when you play a round of golf in the real world of grass.
One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that this mat also is made to accept a rubber tee for hitting your driver and woods, or teeing up your irons for those par 3 holes you play. The mat comes with a special rubber tee holder that is designed to work with the plastic tees that come with the mat. These tees have a small “barb” on the tip. This “barb”, is built into the tee so as to help the tee stay in the rubber tee holder that fits into the bottom of the mat. You can use the rubber tee holder by itself if you want. This would be like hitting off a real low tee. Or you can use one of the shorter tees for your fairway woods. You also get longer tees that work real well for hitting with a modern 460CC driver. All and all, you’re all set to practice all your shots with this True Strike Mat. Hitting driver with the taller tees, hitting your woods and irons off shorter tees, or hitting balls off the deck with your irons, and wood. About the only thing you can’t practice with this mat, is hitting out of the tall rough. Maybe I’ll make a suggestion to the maker of this mat. I’ll ask them to design a separate insert that duplicates tall grass, so I can practice my short game from around the green. It shouldn’t be too hard to do this, because the section of mat you use for hitting off the deck practice, is removable. If they make a new section to replace the gel section, one that duplicates tall grass, it would be perfect. I think I’ll have to ask them about doing exactly that. A tall grass section that could be sold as an option.
Bottom line is this. The True Strike mat is a top quality product. It works as advertised, and it works well. I would love to see my local driving range change over to this mat. It would greatly improve everyone’s experience hitting balls off a mat.
