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Hi all,
I promised I would write up my impressions of the Fiberbuilt Performance mat system once I had it set up and able to run it through it's paces... I am coming from a 5 year old Monster Turf matt, and was looking for something a little firmer to stand on, and less punishing on my wrists/arms. I had narrowed my choices down to Fiberbuilt or a CCE mat. Here are my impressions of the Fiberbuilt:
Construction/Materials
The mat I purchased is the 4x5 Single Sided Performance Mat here: http://www.fiberbuilt.com/golf/produ...nce-mat-nylon/
This set up is substantial. Comes with 4 heavy rubber frame like base sections. Styrofoam squares fit into the rubber frames for stability. It also comes with a 3' x 1' hitting strip also very heavy, and a 4x4 stance mat that is very similar to a CCE, and can be hit off of as well. It's a good concept and makes it much lighter for shipping. The whole setup is heavy enough not to slide around when assembled, and is very well contstructed. The panels are held together at the corners and center by zip ties. I love that this thing is industrial quality stuff.
Things I didn't like - the zip ties were horrible. I swear half the package didn't secure well, so wasted half of them. No worries, there were plenty of extra. Also, it's not a portable or movable setup. If you need to move it out of the way regularly, this just won't work on its own. The rubber base is flimsy, and the foam panels will pop right out if you try to lift or slide it out of the way... additionally is very heavy, and not easy to move. What I did was secure the rubber panels to a 4x5 platform that's about 2" high. I used some drywall screws and large washers, and drove the screws inside the existing holes where the zip ties secure the panels together, with large washers to hold the mat in place, and then used some duct tape to secure the foam panels in the base. I have caster wheels on one side of the platform, so I can tilt up the entire mat system, and wheel it to the side of my garage where I can lean it against the wall. Works fine.. but I need to find a better way to hold the stance mat in place when moving it... The hitting strip easily pulls out and I can store that out of the way easily.
Cost
The system cost me $300 shipped direct from Fiberbuilt on holiday special pricing. A very fair price given other high quality mat systems.
Performance
The stance mat is great. It's firm enough to feel stable and hit off of. Much improved from my Monster Turf that was quite squishy under foot. This mat is soft, but not squishy. Very similar to a CCE feel. The hitting strip fiber material is also very good. I was worried about a few things before purchase. First that the long fibers would not be very stiff, and the ball would sink in, and grounding my club behind the ball at setup would be very difficult if the fibers aren't stiff enough. Second, I was concerned that I would not be able to feel poor strikes (fat shots in particular) given all the comments I have read on how overly forgiving the fiberbuilt hitting material can be. Both concerns were put to rest. The long grass like fibers in the hitting strip are very very firm/stiff. The ball sits up very nicely, and I can gently ground my club behind the ball without it sinking into the fibers or anything. I can easily tell when I hit a shot fat, and actually at times, it almost feels a little more punishing than my Monster Turf when I really dig in and hit a shot steep and fat given the hard plastic bottom the turf is secured into. Granted if I bottom out my club to the base material, it was a HORRIBLE fat shot!... it's rare this occurrs, and a swing that bad deserves to be punished!
At any rate, this hitting strip is wonderful. It feels fairly realistic, and I get good distance and accurate spin numbers from what I can tell when using my SkyTrak. What I like most about this material is the ability to hit hybrid and fairway woods off this material. It was very difficult hitting woods/hybrids off the monster tee. Feels much more realistic hitting woods off the fiberbuilt material.. much less "bounce" off the mat surface than with the Monster Tee turf I had before. The fibers also don't "grab" the club as aggressively which is nice!
The hitting strip comes with several holes for a rubber tee or rubber adustible tee. I have used an adjustible tee in the tee holes and it works well, but with the SkyTrak it is a bit of a pain moving the SkyTrak around to use the tee hole when hitting driver, then move it again to hit irons off the ground away from the tee holes... so I purchased some Tomahawk Tees so I can tee up on those when hitting driver, and not have to move the SkyTrak when hitting irons... to be honest, I'm not that impressed with the Tomahawk Tees when used with the fiberbuilt hitting material. They sink into the fiberbuilt fibers easily, and need to be pressed into the fibers a bit before they become stable enough to hold a ball, and when pressed into the fibers that far, they are too short for my driver. My work around is to stack 3 tomahawk tees together to make it a little higher and this works for now until I can find another/better solution. The fiberbuilt hitting material will not hold a regular tee.
Summary
Overall I am very impressed with the Fiberbuilt performance mat system, and very happy with my decision. My concerns around the material being too forgiving for me to notice mishits are certainly put to rest, as I can easily feel when I mis-hit a shot, which is exactly what I wanted. When playing some sim golf, I was penalized an appropriate amount of yardage for fat shots, while being less physically punishing to my wrists and arms. Best of both worlds if you ask me... I do wish it could be a more portable for my particular application, but I don't believe someone like me that needs to use my garage for golf practice, then move my mat out of the way to park my cars, is the target demographic for this setup/system. I can't fault the product for that. It's a substantial mat system that is more likely meant to be used commercially at a range, not moved or transported regularly. If your setup is pretty permanent, you won't have a problem. This setup should be the last mat I need to buy if it holds up as well as I expect it to... the 4x4 stance mat can be rotated to avoid wear, and the three 1x1 foot squares of the hitting strip can also be moved around if any sections start to wear as time goes on, but the hitting surface is rated for 100,000 strikes.. so I don't see myself wearing this out any time soon.
If anyone has any specific questions or want opinions on anything in particular, I'd be happy to answer what I can... just let me know.
I promised I would write up my impressions of the Fiberbuilt Performance mat system once I had it set up and able to run it through it's paces... I am coming from a 5 year old Monster Turf matt, and was looking for something a little firmer to stand on, and less punishing on my wrists/arms. I had narrowed my choices down to Fiberbuilt or a CCE mat. Here are my impressions of the Fiberbuilt:
Construction/Materials
The mat I purchased is the 4x5 Single Sided Performance Mat here: http://www.fiberbuilt.com/golf/produ...nce-mat-nylon/
This set up is substantial. Comes with 4 heavy rubber frame like base sections. Styrofoam squares fit into the rubber frames for stability. It also comes with a 3' x 1' hitting strip also very heavy, and a 4x4 stance mat that is very similar to a CCE, and can be hit off of as well. It's a good concept and makes it much lighter for shipping. The whole setup is heavy enough not to slide around when assembled, and is very well contstructed. The panels are held together at the corners and center by zip ties. I love that this thing is industrial quality stuff.
Things I didn't like - the zip ties were horrible. I swear half the package didn't secure well, so wasted half of them. No worries, there were plenty of extra. Also, it's not a portable or movable setup. If you need to move it out of the way regularly, this just won't work on its own. The rubber base is flimsy, and the foam panels will pop right out if you try to lift or slide it out of the way... additionally is very heavy, and not easy to move. What I did was secure the rubber panels to a 4x5 platform that's about 2" high. I used some drywall screws and large washers, and drove the screws inside the existing holes where the zip ties secure the panels together, with large washers to hold the mat in place, and then used some duct tape to secure the foam panels in the base. I have caster wheels on one side of the platform, so I can tilt up the entire mat system, and wheel it to the side of my garage where I can lean it against the wall. Works fine.. but I need to find a better way to hold the stance mat in place when moving it... The hitting strip easily pulls out and I can store that out of the way easily.
Cost
The system cost me $300 shipped direct from Fiberbuilt on holiday special pricing. A very fair price given other high quality mat systems.
Performance
The stance mat is great. It's firm enough to feel stable and hit off of. Much improved from my Monster Turf that was quite squishy under foot. This mat is soft, but not squishy. Very similar to a CCE feel. The hitting strip fiber material is also very good. I was worried about a few things before purchase. First that the long fibers would not be very stiff, and the ball would sink in, and grounding my club behind the ball at setup would be very difficult if the fibers aren't stiff enough. Second, I was concerned that I would not be able to feel poor strikes (fat shots in particular) given all the comments I have read on how overly forgiving the fiberbuilt hitting material can be. Both concerns were put to rest. The long grass like fibers in the hitting strip are very very firm/stiff. The ball sits up very nicely, and I can gently ground my club behind the ball without it sinking into the fibers or anything. I can easily tell when I hit a shot fat, and actually at times, it almost feels a little more punishing than my Monster Turf when I really dig in and hit a shot steep and fat given the hard plastic bottom the turf is secured into. Granted if I bottom out my club to the base material, it was a HORRIBLE fat shot!... it's rare this occurrs, and a swing that bad deserves to be punished!
At any rate, this hitting strip is wonderful. It feels fairly realistic, and I get good distance and accurate spin numbers from what I can tell when using my SkyTrak. What I like most about this material is the ability to hit hybrid and fairway woods off this material. It was very difficult hitting woods/hybrids off the monster tee. Feels much more realistic hitting woods off the fiberbuilt material.. much less "bounce" off the mat surface than with the Monster Tee turf I had before. The fibers also don't "grab" the club as aggressively which is nice!
The hitting strip comes with several holes for a rubber tee or rubber adustible tee. I have used an adjustible tee in the tee holes and it works well, but with the SkyTrak it is a bit of a pain moving the SkyTrak around to use the tee hole when hitting driver, then move it again to hit irons off the ground away from the tee holes... so I purchased some Tomahawk Tees so I can tee up on those when hitting driver, and not have to move the SkyTrak when hitting irons... to be honest, I'm not that impressed with the Tomahawk Tees when used with the fiberbuilt hitting material. They sink into the fiberbuilt fibers easily, and need to be pressed into the fibers a bit before they become stable enough to hold a ball, and when pressed into the fibers that far, they are too short for my driver. My work around is to stack 3 tomahawk tees together to make it a little higher and this works for now until I can find another/better solution. The fiberbuilt hitting material will not hold a regular tee.
Summary
Overall I am very impressed with the Fiberbuilt performance mat system, and very happy with my decision. My concerns around the material being too forgiving for me to notice mishits are certainly put to rest, as I can easily feel when I mis-hit a shot, which is exactly what I wanted. When playing some sim golf, I was penalized an appropriate amount of yardage for fat shots, while being less physically punishing to my wrists and arms. Best of both worlds if you ask me... I do wish it could be a more portable for my particular application, but I don't believe someone like me that needs to use my garage for golf practice, then move my mat out of the way to park my cars, is the target demographic for this setup/system. I can't fault the product for that. It's a substantial mat system that is more likely meant to be used commercially at a range, not moved or transported regularly. If your setup is pretty permanent, you won't have a problem. This setup should be the last mat I need to buy if it holds up as well as I expect it to... the 4x4 stance mat can be rotated to avoid wear, and the three 1x1 foot squares of the hitting strip can also be moved around if any sections start to wear as time goes on, but the hitting surface is rated for 100,000 strikes.. so I don't see myself wearing this out any time soon.
If anyone has any specific questions or want opinions on anything in particular, I'd be happy to answer what I can... just let me know.
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