How to Use Golf Mats to Improve Your Swing?

Whether you are cooped up at home during winter, or want to protect your yard from your golf swing, having a mat to hit off of can be a great way to get some extra practice on your golf swing.

In the article below, we will discuss some of the pro’s and con’s of hitting off a golf mat.

Then we will proceed to sharing a golf swing drill that you can practice on your golf mat to work on swing fundamentals and ball striking.

Pro’s of Using a Golf Mat

One of the key benefits to using a golf mat, is it allows you to get extra swings and extra practice each week from home. Having a golf mat, may motivate you to practice golf more as you see it sitting in your home or out in the backyard.

Another pro is it protects your lawn from getting torn apart from divots during your golf swing practice session.

And if you combine a golf simulator with your golf mat, you can play fun games to make practice more exciting.

Con’s of Using a Golf Mat

One of the con’s of using a golf mat is it can hide your ball striking. With traditional grass, you can see where your swing is shallowing out by the divot you are leaving in the ground.

Ideally, you want to strike the ball first and then leave a divot after (in front of where the ball was resting). It can be challenging to see this with a golf mat.

Another con is that a golf mat is less forgiving than the ground which can cause impact injury to your wrists and joints over time if over done. The hardness of the mat can send vibrations and stress up the hands into the wrists and elbows, leading to soreness and possible injury.

With some of the pro’s and con’s out of the way let’s get into an important golf mat drill you can do to practice your swing.

Golf Mat Swing Drill

The goal of this golf swing drill is to improve ball striking and help you master hitting ball first, then taking a divot.

Most golfers hit the ground first 2 to 3 inches before the ball and then hit the ball after. This causes loss of distance and consistency issues with the swing. World class golfers, however, hit the golf ball first and then make contact with the ground 2 to 3 inches after the ball.

As mentioned above, working on ball striking can be difficult with a mat since you can’t see your divot like with traditional dirt and grass.

However, we can work around this by practicing with the following drill.

Start by setting up your golf ball in its normal position in your stance. Once you are in position to start the swing, adjust the golf ball forward in your stance by two inches. Now it is closer to your lead foot by two inches and resting in the position where we would want the divot to happen on normal grass.

Set your club back down in its usual position where the ball should have been (pretending as if it’s still there and not two inches forward).

Now make a swing, with focus on striking the golf ball in its more forward position.

This will train your swing to shallow out slightly forward of normal, so you can practice making contact (divot) with the ball first then ground after.

After doing this drill over time (1000’s of reps), you will train your swing to shallow out more forward in the stance and help you cut down on chunked golf shots. You’ll get away from hitting the ground behind the ball, and move toward a swing that hits ball first, divot after like the professionals.

Recommended Golf Mat

If you are looking to purchase a golf mat to practice your swing from home, here is our top recommended golf mat. This mat features durability to hold up after using it for thousands of swings. It comes with extra rubber tees and even alignment sticks to help you practice your golf swing set up position. It also features premium turf that simulates golf course grass conditions.

Check out this golf mat on Amazon

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