Sounds like the grass area would be good for practicing shots out of the "rough". Mats won't hurt your game but they do allow you

to hit a shot a bit fat and not really notice it. Having a flat surface to practice on is more important though. Be careful if the 

mats are rock hard though, it's easy to get tendonitis in your elbow if you pound a lot of balls. Good luck

Jesse,

One of the risks of hitting off mats is that your fat shots will still fly and look great, but if you groove that "fat" swing, your results on the course will be disappointing.  One winter of indoor simulator use led to a terrible spring start for me, I'd developed some bad habits.

Another risk, is depending upon the mats and the surface beneath (concrete?) is the repeated impact on your wrists and elbows.  I know a couple of guys with injuries they attribute to hitting off a mat range.  And, if you have forged clubs, I've heard that you can change the loft/lie from repeated mat/concrete range use.  I don't know if that's an urban legend or fact, so please take that with a grain of salt.

I am eagerly waiting for responses to this. I have wondered about this for some time. None of the local courses here have natural grass driving ranges, and I feel hitting off of the mat all the time hinders my on course performance.

In my opinion, not as long as you're very aware of your contact. It's possible to hit behind the ball off mats and still get fairly solid feedback.  I practice mainly on turf, but hit off of mats when my local is closed. 

In my experience, hitting off mats will not hurt your game but you have to be able to analyze your strike better. Mats tend to make fat shot turn out better and in my experience, minimize mishits. 

Hi Jesse,

It is my experience that when hitting off a mat, I do not get the true affect of hitting behind the ball during a poor golf swing. The club will bounce thru the mat and and actually produce a not so bad shot. When hitting off the turf, you know when you're hitting behind the ball by producing divots before impact.

Living in the Northeast, I am use to hitting off mats before the season begins. I have had to fight thru fat chunky swing faults because of my practice rounds off mats. Ive learned thru experience that its better to practice than not, but to be aware of how a mat affects the bounce of my club head. I will try to pick it more off a mat than hit down and once warm weather arrives, try to practice only on grass.

I hope this helps, 

Jed

Don't know if the mats will hurt your game.  When I go to an indoor range through the winter and hit from mats, I'm just looking to work on my pre-shot drill, stance / shoulder alignment, and swing rhythm.  I do not hit balls laying directly on the mat, I tee them all up with the rubber tees they have.  I have never thought that this hurt my game any.

A lot depends on what you are trying to do.  If your working on tempo and balance the mats are probably fine.  The mat will correct many things at impact so you do not get a true measure of how you are hitting it.  That being said It is better than nothing.  Watch your wrists with too much mat time.  I would try hitting several shots off the grass and create a bare patch from divots, the practice off the bare patch.

Absolutely not. hitting off mats 9while not nearly as much fun) gives you the sweeping motion rather than a digging motion that puts way too much spoin on the ball.  Obviously, it's easier to hit long irons that way than 8-PW but anytime you can swing a club it's beneficial. Also, there's a but less room for error off mats than grass. You'll feel a mis-hits much more off mats.

In my opinion, the main thing you need to be careful of in using mats vs grass is your contact with the ball.  Hitting off mats, the club can easily come down short of the ball, bounce into the ball, and give you what feels like good contact, but actually is not.  If you hit the same shot off grass you'll hit the ball fat.  There are ways to highlight this on mats, such as placing a towel behind the ball.  If the towel moves, you're bottoming out behind the ball instead of hitting the ball first.  Both work, you just need to be aware of what happens at the bottom of the swing.

As I am happy to be in the fairway, alas it is not always so. I would choose to play on the real anytime over mats. I will assume that you are not always playing on PGA type courses. (executive) you are on occasion playing off bad lies, clover, less than perfect conditions. Where as on a mat you are always playing from a spot where you can have a perfect lie. If you hit down on the ball and take divots then your hands will surely get a workout. If you pick the ball then not as bad.  I can't say this would hurt your game as any practice in any condition is better than no practice then go for it. You will see soon enough if your game will suffer.  

Hi Jesse,

I always feel like when you hit off mats and not turf you get a different feel to your shots and it does not mimic what you would encounter on turf. Given a choice, I would rather hit off turf than mats, but that is just me. It is also tougher to shape shots off a mat as well (for me at least).

I would always hit off grass if given the option

Mats seem to be really forgiving on any kind of fat or tin shot

Well this is very helpful to me. No course locally here has a natural practice range, mats only. I'll use some of the tips posted here the next time to assure I'm getting the most out of my practice. I do notice fat hits by hearing the thump before the ball impact, so the towel drill will be the first one I will use.

Thanks for the input everyone, I've taken what was said and think that I will start my practice routine from the grass and then move to the mat for longer irons and driver practice.  

Great post and enjoyed reading some of the feedback.  IMO i prefer hitting off grass when i can, not a fan of the mat.  With the mat i feel like you can't really tell how well you're actually hitting it..

There are some driving ranges that have thin mats and some with padded mats.  There are also some grass driving ranges with uneven lies.  It is true on a more padded mat it would disguise a fat shot but you would also lose distance.  The overly thin mats would cause tendonitis if you tend to dig.  You do get a better feel on grass.  The big issue with driving ranges is you are stationary and sometimes groove bad swing habits (such as getting off balance or  your upper body leading the swing).

As long as the mats are not in terrible shape where your stinging your hands post impact I can't see it affecting your game at all.

I have some rundown mats where it feel like your hitting off of concrete but I don't see any problem with decent mats.

Good luck and play well !

There are some great comments on this issue.  Sometimes you are forced to hit off mats and sometimes you have the option for mats versus grass.  Personally, if a practice facility has mats and that it all they have available, it think it is great from a warm up perspective before a round.  Hitting some balls off a mat prior to your round to loosen up is entirely reasonable.  However, I think that it where it stops for me.  I would not want to spend a lot of time practicing my ball striking off a mat because it would give me unrealistic feedback as to how I am hitting shots.  I would say for your routine practice, hit off the grass as often as you can to really try to replicate what you experience on the course and get realistic feedback on how your club interacts with the ball and the turf.