fairway mat

[patricks148]

I quite like mats. Makes fat chips and pitches impossible and the overall benefit to the turf is pretty obvious in winter.

Understand why people get sniffy about them if paying lots of money to play somewhere but I'd rather play somewhere in the spring knowing that mats have been used in the winter for example.

def makes sense up here Jim, we could easily have no grass growth for almost 5 months.

and like you say, its protecting the course so its in tip top shape come the season.

 

[Robobum]

The mats bit I get, I wouldn't like it much, but I get it.

The bit I don't get is why let you move your ball to just into the rough? Rather than have divots and damage spread across a 30yd wide fairway, the same damage is concentrated to a 3ft wide strip either side?

If you are going to stipulate mats, then don't give an option

 

[hovis]

The mats bit I get, I wouldn't like it much, but I get it.

The bit I don't get is why let you move your ball to just into the rough? Rather than have divots and damage spread across a 30yd wide fairway, the same damage is concentrated to a 3ft wide strip either side?

If you are going to stipulate mats, then don't give an option

i see the logic in this

 

[BrizoH71]

We use them through the winter months, many don't like them but they certainly make a difference imo. If you hit off our fairways in winter, there'd be huge gouges as the ground gets really soft and wet at our place.

I use a strip of artificial turf rather than the mat, for some reason takes 5-10 yards off a club though which is a pain. Main worry though is if I catch it fat there's no bounce into the ball like a mat.

If we take the ball into the side, our stipulation is a club-length inside, and the stance has to be in the rough. Most folks flaunt it though.

 

[patricks148]

The mats bit I get, I wouldn't like it much, but I get it.

The bit I don't get is why let you move your ball to just into the rough? Rather than have divots and damage spread across a 30yd wide fairway, the same damage is concentrated to a 3ft wide strip either side?

If you are going to stipulate mats, then don't give an option

we have done this now the last couple of years with the mats, so now its mats everywhere except the rough, ie any cut surface.
we were getting a 3 foot strip along the side of each fairway where everyone was dropping, come beginning of the season 1st cut decimated.

its no hardship, its social golf over winter for us with no comps.

 

[wrighty1874]

Mats are optional at our club. I quite like like them as you don't have to replace divots for a few weeks.

 

[Robster59]

Parkland golf in Glasgow during winter? That means mats, but it also means a course in great nic throughout the rest of the year

Same here. Mats at our club as well from end November. You get used to it and can hit off the first cut if you prefer but most use the mats.
I use the Rocket Launcher aka Smart Mat which I much prefer to the bristle ones although you have to be precise with your contact with the short irons or you can get underneath it too much.
The club also provides a wheelie bin of loan mats for those who have forgotten them.

 

[louise_a]

Mats are optional at our club. I quite like like them as you don't have to replace divots for a few weeks.

I really can't see the point in making them optional, either make them compulsory or don't bother with them.