If you head to the driving range, you want to be productive. You’re there to practice and not to just swing the golf club a couple times. Well that’s what I too often see people doing. Just swinging with no purpose.
So how do you get a purpose? You show up with one. And the best tip to show up with is to know where you’re aiming. I know it seems simple but just remember back to your last time at the driving range. Were you lined up to your target? Or were you lined up to where the mat or lines or divot marks were point you?
Next time you head to the driving range follow this one tip. Move around on the driving range area and point at angles to the mat or the divots or the golfers around you (just don’t point at them, try 10 – 20 degrees off of your normal, don’t be silly, be safe.) By doing this you may find out that you’re actually hitting the ball where you want to and will help get you closer to playing scratch golf.
Swinging off of those astroturf, sometimes smooth golf mats at most ranges, does it help or hurt your golf swing? Always wondering this same thing we are always on the lookout for any little bit of insight into the dilemma that a lot of golfers go through as they work through their swing at the local range.
Grouchy golf has just posted an interesting little commentary on the subject titled Avoid Practicing Golf on a Range Mat. We can obviously see how he feels about the idea of whacking balls off of the fake stuff, but he does bring up some good points.
First off he talks about, and has a nice little video showing the divot taken from a good golf shot. His argument is that on a golf mat you don’t know if you hit the ball fat or not. There’s no feedback. Sure the shot may not go as far because the mat slows down you swing but your club does dig in turning the face on impact and producing fat shots that turn left or right, as they would on the real stuff.
This means even though you’re practicing often you may not be getting all the benefits. Now most of us don’t have the choice because of time factors, to drive to that one course that has real turf to practice off of. But we suggest trying to switch it up every now and then and of course if you are playing somewhere that has a driving range with real grass, stay after your round or come early and practice. You may be tired afterwords but you’ll get some good range time in.
