Building a golf practice mat with a pallet

[inc0gnito]

I've made a mess to the grass in the back garden hitting balls into a net. So much worse now its winter with the grass not growing back. My fat shots aren't helping either

I've found that practice mats don't help all that much because the impact causes the ground underneath the mat to wear away anyway.

I have a wooden pallet and thought maybe I could turn that into a practice mat. After use I can just move it off to the side and given the distribution of weight and impact going into the pallet rather than the ground, it shouldn't destroy the grass.

ANyone done this, or have any useful tips on how to turn the pallet into a practice mat? My first thought is what material to put down under the mat to reduce any potential damage to the club from impact.

 

[jim8flog]

One tip for me would be to fill in the gaps in the pallet to make your footing more stable
and the second would be a piece of old carpet under the astroturf.

 

[inc0gnito]

One tip for me would be to fill in the gaps in the pallet to make your footing more stable
and the second would be a piece of old carpet under the astroturf.

good point. was thinking of some rubber (maybe those flooring mats that fit together like jigsaws), and thought that might negate the gaps. But maye that wouldn't be enough.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

We use pallets all of the time at work, I'm often stood on one. You might be surprised at how unstable the gaps make them when you are on them. I'd look to get a solid pallet, then get a cheap piece of hardboard / chipboard etc, or equivalent, to place on top of it. That gives a secure base for you to stand on, no gaps for your feet to be in. I was thinking whether you need to drill the odd hole to let water through but perhaps don't bother.

Then put your astroturf on top, staple it, stick it, take your pick.

 

[RichA]

You could try chucking a cheap coir doormat on the grass to stand on and use one of those plastic fairway mats to hit the ball off. It would be more stable than standing on a pallet.

 

[Springveldt]

You could try chucking a cheap coir doormat on the grass to stand on and use one of those plastic fairway mats to hit the ball off. It would be more stable than standing on a pallet.

I've done this before. I had a left over roll of artificial grass from a DIY job, it's probably about 8 foot long and 4 foot wide. I put that down and did some speed training and it still tore the ground to bits if its soft. During the summer it wasn't bad, I had that down and hit off a mat into a net and it didn't damage the ground at all really.

 

[patricks148]

when i had a practice net, i made a permanent hardcore base for the mat

 

[inc0gnito]

We use pallets all of the time at work, I'm often stood on one. You might be surprised at how unstable the gaps make them when you are on them. I'd look to get a solid pallet, then get a cheap piece of hardboard / chipboard etc, or equivalent, to place on top of it. That gives a secure base for you to stand on, no gaps for your feet to be in. I was thinking whether you need to drill the odd hole to let water through but perhaps don't bother.

Then put your astroturf on top, staple it, stick it, take your pick.

Acrually had another look at the pallet and its not your typical pallet (didn't take a mental note of what it looked like previously!). There are only a few gaps and they are quite small. Makes for natural drainage and shouldn't affect footing.

wondering if I should put dense foam mats down then a thin layer of artificial grass, and just throw a standard rubber practice mat for where I'll hit balls from.

 

[inc0gnito]

I've done this before. I had a left over roll of artificial grass from a DIY job, it's probably about 8 foot long and 4 foot wide. I put that down and did some speed training and it still tore the ground to bits if its soft. During the summer it wasn't bad, I had that down and hit off a mat into a net and it didn't damage the ground at all really.

yeah I've hit off a standrad mat, a piece of fake grass doormat, and one of those coir doormats. The coir one broke. And the other still damaged the ground underneath. The other thing to consider is the damage done to the grass from where you stand. The constant pushing into the ground and twisting destroys the ground in the winter.