Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with using mats for hitting irons off the floor? If it's ball -turf were striving for then the unyielding mat (unless your lucky enough to have a range with those ball reservoir, poppy-uppy tees- which also have a strip of cropped turf*) caused me to mentally hold back from trying to trap the ball properly as I know I'm going to get a jolt of unpleasant feedback through the shaft. This can't be good in the long run if were trying to groove a repeatable action can it?

Fine for tee'd up woods and woods/hybrids off the deck at a push but I'm a bit disillusioned with trying to practice off what equates to hardpan on a course.

On the other hand I can see that the owners of the golf range don't want to have to re-fit fluffy mats every six months because some complete barnicle has tried to dig a trench with his/her PW.

(I know the answer is to use grass bays but they're not always available)

* I haven't yet worked out a way of taking a practice swing off this strip of fluffy stuff without the machine thinking I want another ball. It all goes a bit 'Frank Spencer' from there if I'm not careful.

bill